Reddy may ‘tax’ viewers to save Prasar Bharati

Another option considered was imposing a licence fee on BBC lines. While the PBC looked at Rs 400 crore from 82 million TV homes, officials felt it would run into administrative problems. The last and most lucrative proposal was to tax cable households. ‘‘It was felt that consumers could pay Rs 10-20 per month over and above the cable fee to the operator,’’ sources said. Corporation officials thought they would earn Rs 1,000 crore each year but did not push the idea as they weren’t sure if it would stand up to legal scrutiny.

And Reddy might just revisit the proposals drawn by PBC. While he is entertaining bail-out packages for the Corporation, officials are seeking a waiver of service tax (about 8 per cent) and property tax, by lobbying to restore Section 22 of the Prasar Bharati Act that bestowed a special status to the Corporation, exempting it from paying service tax and income tax. Two years ago, the Finance Act 2002, had omitted the section to bring the public broadcaster on par with the rest. Since then, officials have been trying hard to get the Section included in the Prasar Bharati Act and free them from the burden of paying taxes.