Watching cable TV may get dearer

Watching cable television is likely to get dearer with the state government proposing to bring multi-system operation under the entertainment tax net.

A proposal in this regard is expected to be brought before the state cabinet on Wednesday.
As per the current system, local cable operators are liable to pay entertainment tax, which is collected by the collector’s office. As per the new proposal, however, the revenue department will collect the tax directly from multiple-system operators such as TataSky, Hathway, Videocon and Airtel instead of the local cable operators operating under them. The department has also proposed making it mandatory for local cable operators to collect the tax from end-users. This could then be passed on to the MSO, which, in turn, would make payments to the collector’s office.

If approved, the proposal could have immediate impact in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nagpur.  Under the digitisation of cable television networks, the Centre had earlier made it mandatory for consumers in Mumbai and other metro cities to switch over to set top boxes (STBs) by October 30, 2012. The rule also became applicable to all cities with a million-plus population from March 31, 2013.

The Centre has further proposed to cover the entire country by December 31 this year.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com