Thaindian News

Kolkata, Jan 12 (IANS) Cable TV equipment makers and traders Thursday sought tax holiday from the West Bengal government for paving the way for digitisation of cable TV network in the state, saying the task required huge investment.

Cable TV Equipments Traders and Manufacturers Association (CTMA) president Rajesh Doshi told reporters here: “The digitisation process for the city alone will cost around Rs.600 crore while for the whole of state will be close to Rs.1,300 crore. Unless and until we are given tax holidays for at least five years we cannot function.”

“We have decided to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee not only to seek tax holidays but also give our proposals on digitisation,” Doshi said.

The union information and broadcasting ministry has set March 31, 2012, as a deadline for shifting from analog to digital systems in the four metros of Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai and Dec 31, 2014, for the whole of India.

Doshi said both the subscribers and the operators will be benefited once the modernisation process was complete.

“At present the average rent per channel for a subscriber comes roughly to Rs.1-1.50, but after the upgradation, the average rent will come down to as low as 10 paise per channel as the number of channels will increase manifold though the rent will surely go up,” Doshi said.

The number of subscribers in the city was also likely to go up from the existing 30 lakh to around 50 lakh in the next few years, he said.

Doshi refused to divulge the current revenue of the industry but said it was likely to double by the end of 2014 when the digitisation process would be fully complete.

–Indo-Asian News service
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