The government today reduced the effective duty on set-top boxes from 50.8 per cent to 5 per cent.
This is its first definite indication that the decision to implement conditional television access in the four metropolises from July 14 is unlikely to be rolled back.
The government hopes set-top boxes will cost 45 per cent less than the prices being quoted now. Digital boxes priced at Rs 5,000 will cost around Rs 2,750, and prices of analog boxes will go down correspondingly from Rs 3,000.
