The Hindu : Indian Media Group meets Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 02, 2003

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Indian Media Group meets Advani

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI SEPT. 1. The Indian Media Group (IMG) — which has been pressing for a comprehensive media policy — today urged the Government to bring the foreign broadcasters operating out of India under the tax net to create a level-playing field for all components of the media. A demand to this effect was communicated by the Group to the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, and the Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting (I&B), Ravi Shankar Prasad, at separate meetings.

Though pleased with the Government's decision to revise the satellite uplinking guidelines for news and current affairs TV channels from India and bringing it on a par with the print media, the IMG maintained that the foreign broadcasters continued to enjoy the benefits of a tax structure that allowed them to repatriate a major portion of their revenue. According to the IMG, while Indian companies paid 33 per cent of their revenue as income-tax, foreign companies had to shell out only 7 per cent as withholding tax.

In fact, the Government — while deciding to review the satellite uplinking policy on July 12 — had also asked the Ministries of I&B, Law and Finance to work out a structure which offers a level-playing field to all television channels vis-a-vis tax structure. Since the revised satellite uplinking guidelines — notified on August 28 — do not take into account the tax factor, the IMG today decided to approach the Government to press for a uniform tax regime.

Also, the members of the Group — which included Vineet Jain and Vijay Jindal of The Times of India, Arun Poorie and Prabhu Chawla of the India Today group, and Subhash Goyal of Zee TV — urged the Government to ensure that the new guidelines are adhered to, and the applicant companies were not allowed to side-step the law as Star News had sought to do while applying for uplinking from India.

Meanwhile, the vice-chairman of The Hindustan Times Ltd., Shobhana Bharatiya, today confirmed that Hendersen Global Investors had picked up 20 per cent stake in the Hindustan Times Media Private Limited, the new company that has been floated to launch a Mumbai edition of the newspaper. Talking to reporters after a meeting with the I&B Secretary, Pawan Chopra, she said no timeframe had been set to launch the Mumbai edition.

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