The Hindu Business Line : Ministry bid to evolve capital restructuring plan for Prasar Bharati

IN an attempt to take forward the corporatisation of Prasar Bharati and make it financially self-sustaining, a committee in the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry is in the process of assessing the value of physical assets that could be passed on to the broadcaster.

"We are trying to evolve a capital restructuring plan for Prasar Bharati. Hence, we are trying to ascertain the value of land, towers and other infrastructure. Subsequently, we will decide how these assets can be transferred or leased to the public broadcaster," said a senior Government official.

The committee has already gone through a variety of proposals and a final decision could be taken in a month. Against an expenditure of around Rs 2,000 crore, Prasar Bharati generates revenues of Rs 800 crore.

The Government can do transfer the assets for free or work out arrangements where the Government can pick up equity, offer loans or even subsidy to the broadcaster. It could also consider the option of having a stake in the entity. "We are looking at various options including the taxation issues and hope to finalise something shortly," he added.

He, however, said that the value of the library held by Prasar Bharati has not been valued at the moment as some of the programmes were produced under the sponsored category and hence the copyrights is with the producer.

He said this could provide the public broadcaster the much-needed assets required to borrow money from banks and other institutions. Once the committee finalises the report, the Finance Ministry and Planning Commission would have to give its approval. Subsequently, it will be taken to the Cabinet.

Highlighting the new policies during the year at the Economic Editors Conference, I&B Minister, Mr Jaipal Reddy, said that the Government has initiated the second phase of FM radio privatisation, permitted facsimile editions of foreign newspapers and has put in place uplinking and downlinking guidelines. "We are permitting printing of foreign newspapers in India subject to the 26 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) cap and 20 per cent ceiling on foreign content. The Indian newspaper cannot also have the same masthead as the foreign version," he said while elaborating on the foreign investment norms in news and current affairs publications.

On the direct-to-home (DTH) front, the Minister said that currently, besides DD's free DTH service, ASC Enterprises' Dish TV is already operational. Letters of Intent (LoI) has been granted to the Tata-Star TV promoted T-Sky and Sun TV. Mr Anil Ambani's proposal is still under consideration, he added.

Wage board

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked the Labour Ministry to set up a new wage board for employees of newspaper and news agency.

"We have recommended setting up of a new wage board to the Labour Ministry," Mr Reddy said. The Minister said he was "positive" that the Labour Ministry "will take a favourable view of this". The last wage revision for journalists was done as per the R K Manisana Singh wage board.

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