Budget no breaking news for media

The media and entertainment industry has expressed its disappointment with the Budget.

Apart from a marginal reduction in the cost of imported film stocks, camera and other hardware equipment due to a 2.5 per cent reduction in peak Customs duty, the finance minister has ignored its list of demands.

The set-top boxes will now become costlier by Rs 50-60 due to a one percentage point increase in education cess from 2 per cent to 3 per cent. While all imported boxes attract zero Customs duty, companies have to pay a 16.32 per cent countervailing duty (CVD) along with education cess.

Set-top box manufacturers are disappointed as the government had hinted at sops to encourage local manufacturing.

"If the 13 per cent CVD on chips, RAM, chassis and 16 per cent duty on plastic products required for set-top boxes were brought down or removed, local manufacturing would have been encouraged," said Vineet Wadhwa, chief technical officer, Logic Eastern, a company that manufactures set-top boxes for IPTV and CAS.

Even the private FM radio industry did not get any sops. The radio players were expecting a waiver of service tax for a five-year period along with a reduction in Customs duty to under 16 per cent from 38 per cent that is currently levied on hardware like radio transmitters, mixers and other equipment.

"The 2.5 per cent reduction in peak Custom duty to 10 per cent will bring down the cost of hardware equipment for both radio and film industry," said Rajiv Mishra, president of Association of Radio Operators in India.

For the public broadcaster, the Budget has brought a five-fold increase in budgetery support for Doordarshan and All India Radio. For 2007-08, the finance minister has allocated Rs 217.44 crore for Doordarshan and All India Radio to improve their broadcasting services. Last year, the allocation was only Rs 41.11 crore.

However, the grants-in-aid to the broadcaster has slipped down from Rs 1,174.82 crore last fiscal to Rs 1,163.93 crore this year. On the whole, the allocation to the information and broadcasting ministry showed only a marginal increase.