(26 February 2009 5:45 pm)

MUMBAI: Dish TV will pass on the benefit of the service tax reduction from 12.36 per cent to 10.36 per cent to its subscribers with immediate effect.

Said Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor, "In November 2008 we had started charging consumers for the service tax as till then the company was bearing the burden of paying this tax on behalf of the subscribers. Now we will pass on the full benefit of the service tax reduction to our 4.9 million subscribers."

However, Kapoor expressed concern saying that the DTH industry is passing through a tough time due to multiple taxes, like service tax, entertainment tax, value added tax and licence fee, which he said “goes as high as 40 per cent of subscription revenue.”

Kapoor also said that the government has not taken any step in the past two years to “rationalise licence fee from 10 per cent of the gross revenues to 6 per cent,” despite strong recommendations from Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).

Meanwhile, Information and broadcasting secretary Sushma Singh had recently said at Ficci-Frames that the government is considering a reduction in licence fee for DTH to six per cent of gross revenue from the prevailing rate of 10 per cent.

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