The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is discovering its voice after the Finance Ministry bailed it out last week by bringing down customs duty on set-top boxes to five per cent from 51 per cent.Ministry officials are now asking cable operators/Multi-System Operators to declare the channels they intend to show on the free tier. ‘‘We have heard them making claims about showing 70 channels as free-to-air for Rs 92. We want them to specify all those channels,’’ officials said, setting June 15 as the date for a formal declaration.Soon after MSOs slashed the price of boxes to between Rs 2,330-Rs 3,000 following the duty cut, incidentally valid till July 31, officials said, they will be paying on to the free-to-air tier. They will also ask broadcasters to declare rates of individual pay channels. ‘‘We have a strong reason to believe broadcasters are deliberately keeping away from declaring price of individual pay channels,’’ a senior official said.At a meeting on June 3, officials and stake holders are expected to tie loose ends, as advised by Prime Minister M A.B. Vajpayee. ‘‘Quantity discounts are fine but we must know the price first,’’ officials said, adding they would not allow anything that would render the Act illusory.‘‘If the need arises, we will even come out with a notification,’’ they said.
