Low fund proposal short-circuits Digital India plan

The government does not seem to be keen on continuing funding of many present schemes of the I&B Ministry in the next financial year, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Feb 26, 2007, 06:08:26 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Information and Broadcasting ministry’s mega plan for digital television and cinema for the country in the next five years may hit financial roadblock as the Planning Commission has proposed just Rs 585 crore for the ministry for the financial year 2007-08 against Rs 538 crore in 2006-07.

The I&B ministry had demanded Rs 1749.9 crore with a primary idea to convert Prasar Bharati — that includes Doordarshan and All India Radio — into a digital mode. The commission, however, decided to adopt a cautious approach considering the heavy losses of Prasar Bharati. “Prasar Bharati should become turn a revenue earner to justify the huge fund allocation demanded by the ministry,” a commission official told HT.

This does not mean that the ministry’s proposal for digital television and cinema has gone for a toss. Government officials say the Finance Ministry is considering proposals to lower tax regime on import of films, digital equipment and set top boxes. The ministry has proposed a tax structure of about 10-12 per cent as compared to present ranging between 16 to 24 per cent. The ministry has also proposed to lower entertainment tax on films.

On its part, the ministry has constituted five sub-groups to media to suggest ways to meet the new technological challenges and encourage India media. The groups are on digital television, export of films, certification issues of films and help in growth of multiplexes. According to government estimates, the Indian entertainment industry would account for Rs 58,000 crore by 2010, if the industry grows at an annual rate of 18 per cent.

Although digital media is expected get tax benefits, the government does not seem to be keen on continuing funding of many present schemes of the I&B Ministry in the next financial year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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