Three DTH ops take govt to TDSAT over licence fee issue

[Deepu]

Even as the case is pending in the Supreme Court, the government has sent notices to all the six private direct-to-home (DTH) operators asking them to cough up the pending licence fee dues within the next 15 days. The total amount claimed by the government is a whopping Rs 2,066 crore ( Rs 20.66 billion), according to a source familiar with the development. Dish TV will have to pay Rs 625 crore ( Rs 6.25 billion), followed by Tata Sky who will need to shell out Rs 620 crore ( Rs 6.20 billion), the source added. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) had sent the notices to the DTH operators on 24 March. DTH companies are required to pay 10 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as annual licence fee to the government. However, some DTH operators like Tata Sky have questioned the definition of AGR. Their contention is that licence fee should be paid only on subscription revenue and not on allied earnings such as dividend and interest income. The DTH operators, have also argued that licence fee should be applicable to subscription revenue net of content cost (as content cost is a pass-through to the broadcasters). The matter moved to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) and the dispute is now lying in the Supreme Court. The matter is sub judice and comes up for hearing in the first week of April. Tata Sky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal admitted that the company has received the notice. “The notice has come but we are studying it and will decide on our next course of action soon,” he told TelevisionPost.com. Another senior official from a leading DTH operator said the MIB’s demand to pay licence fee based on gross revenue along with interest is completely unjustified particularly since the matter is sub judice and is coming up for hearing in first week of April. There are two options before the DTH operators. “Either we write back to the MIB explaining why they cannot raise this demand at this juncture since the matter is sub judice or we file an application in the Supreme Court against the move. Nothing has been finalised and we are exploring both the options,” the official said. Since the matter is sub judice, the Supreme Court is expected to grant a stay in favour of the DTH operators till the final verdict is out. Any judgment contrary to this will hurt the DTH companies. While DTH companies provide for 10 per cent licence fee on overall revenue in their profit and loss account, they pay less (only on subscription revenue net of content cost) at about 5 per cent of overall revenue. The rest is booked as a provision in the balance sheet, along with applicable interest. As of 31 March 2013, Dish TV’s closing provision pertaining to regulatory dues (including interest) stood at Rs 653.66 crore ( Rs 6.54 billion). DTH operators are hopeful that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) would bring down the licence fee from 10 per cent to 8 per cent. Since this will be applicable prospectively, it will have no impact on the current case. The final decision on the licence fee structure will be taken by the new government.

Read more at: Govt asks DTH operators to cough up Rs 20.7 bn as licence fee dues | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com

 

[Rushil]

RE: Govt asks DTH operators to cough up Rs 20.7 bn as licence fee dues

Very High Amount Pending Form Dish Tv And Tata Sky skd

 

[Basil]

RE: Govt asks DTH operators to cough up Rs 20.7 bn as licence fee dues

Dish TV and Tata Sky having high amount pending skd:u

 

[Anirudha]

RE: Govt asks DTH operators to cough up Rs 20.7 bn as licence fee dues

dishtv and TATA(SKY is not paying Licence Fee skd

 

[Sarkar]

RE: Govt asks DTH operators to cough up Rs 20.7 bn as licence fee dues

They are waiting for final verdict from supreme court

 

[Deepu]

RE: Govt asks DTH operators to cough up Rs 20.7 bn as licence fee dues

Operators of private direct-to-home (DTH) platforms, who recently received a notice from the government with regard to licence fee dues amounting to Rs 2,066 crore, plan to challenge the notice on the ground that the matter is subjudice and is pending in the Supreme Court.

However, the DTH Operators Association of India is yet to decide whether the challenge will be in the form of a reply to the Ministry or an application in Court.

According to the notice sent earlier this week, the six private operators have been asked to pay the amount within fifteen days.

However, most of the operators contacted by indiantelevision.com said they had cleared the dues of licence fee.

The operators say the licence fee as demanded under the rules is on gross revenue (GR) whereas they have been asked to pay the fee on the basis of actual gross revenue (AGR). The operators have said the fee should be only on subscription revenue and not on allied earnings such as dividend and interest income.

When the operators insisted that they had been paying the licence fee on the GR, the government went to the Supreme Court on the issue and the matter has been pending for the past four years and is now expected to come up early next month.

However, Information and Broadcasting Ministry secretary Bimal Julka told indiantelevision.com that the Ministry was justified in sending the notices since the apex court had not levied a stay order in the matter. Asked about possible action after 15 days, he said this would be done according to the provisions of the licensing rules.

Tata Sky MD & CEO Harit Nagpal said that the demand of Rs 2,066 crore is the differential between the GR and the AGR.

He also said that I&B Ministry had itself asked the Finance Ministry to reduce the fee from 10 per cent to six per cent but the latter had not taken a decision on this so far.

According to the notices sent to the operators, Dish TV has to pay Rs 625 crore while Tata Sky has been told to pay Rs 620 crore. Airtel Digital TV has to pay Rs 298 crore, while Sun Direct has to clear Rs 230 crore. The Videocon-owned d2h has to pay Rs 157 crore while Reliance Digital TV has to pay Rs 136 crore.

While DTH companies provide for 10 per cent licence fee on overall revenue in their profit and loss account, they pay less (only on subscription revenue net of content cost) at about five per cent of overall revenue. The rest is booked as a provision in the balance sheet, along with applicable interest.

As of 31 March 2013, Dish TV’s closing provision pertaining to regulatory dues (including interest) stood at Rs 653.66 crore.

Some of the DTH operators were hopeful that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India would bring down the licence fee from 10 per cent to six per cent, as proposed by the I&B Ministry to the Finance Ministry. TRAI itself had recommended last year that the actual gross revenue should be brought down to eight per cent.

Meanwhile, the Parliament was told in April last year that the six private DTH operators paid Rs 307.8 crore as licence fee to the government for the year 2011-12, compared to Rs 177.8 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 126.2 crore in 2009-10.

The revenue in 2008-09 was Rs 89.3 crore from four operators, since both Airtel Digital TV (Bharti Telemedia) as well as Videocon d2h (Bharat Business Channel) had not commenced services.

The other DTH players are Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct TV, and Reliance Big TV.

Under the agreement with the government, the platforms pay a non-refundable entry fee of Rs 10 crore and an annual fee equivalent to 10 per cent of its gross revenue every financial year. Thus, the platforms have paid Rs 60 crore as one-time entry fee.

According to figures furnished in the reply to the Parliament, Tata Sky paid licence fee of Rs 79.3 crore in 2011-12 as against Airtel Digital’s Rs 61.87 crore and Dish TV’s Rs 30 crore. Sun Direct paid Rs 36 crore, Reliance Big TV paid Rs 9.5 crore, and Videocon d2h paid Rs 5 crore.

DTH services are governed by the DTH guidelines and terms and conditions issued by the I&B Ministry on 15 March 2001 and amended from time to time.

The seven DTH players in the country including Doordarshan’s free-to-air Freedish cover around 3.5 crore TV homes. Freedish currently has 59 slots including 22 of its own and which it hopes to increase to 97 by the end of this year and ultimately to 250 slots over the next two years.

http://www.indiantelevision.com/dth/dth-operator/dth-operators-to-challenge-ib-ministry%E2%80%99s-notice-on-arrears-140327

 

[Kalyan_1980]

RE: Govt asks DTH operators to cough up Rs 20.7 bn as licence fee dues

Even as the case is pending in the Supreme Court, the government has sent notices to all the six private direct-to-home (DTH) operators asking them to cough up the pending licence fee dues within the next 15 days. The total amount claimed by the government is a whopping Rs 2,066 crore ( Rs 20.66 billion), according to a source familiar with the development. Dish TV will have to pay Rs 625 crore ( Rs 6.25 billion), followed by Tata Sky who will need to shell out Rs 620 crore ( Rs 6.20 billion), the source added. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) had sent the notices to the DTH operators on 24 March. DTH companies are required to pay 10 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as annual licence fee to the government. However, some DTH operators like Tata Sky have questioned the definition of AGR. Their contention is that licence fee should be paid only on subscription revenue and not on allied earnings such as dividend and interest income. The DTH operators, have also argued that licence fee should be applicable to subscription revenue net of content cost (as content cost is a pass-through to the broadcasters). The matter moved to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) and the dispute is now lying in the Supreme Court. The matter is sub judice and comes up for hearing in the first week of April. Tata Sky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal admitted that the company has received the notice. “The notice has come but we are studying it and will decide on our next course of action soon,” he told TelevisionPost.com. Another senior official from a leading DTH operator said the MIB’s demand to pay licence fee based on gross revenue along with interest is completely unjustified particularly since the matter is sub judice and is coming up for hearing in first week of April. There are two options before the DTH operators. “Either we write back to the MIB explaining why they cannot raise this demand at this juncture since the matter is sub judice or we file an application in the Supreme Court against the move. Nothing has been finalised and we are exploring both the options,” the official said. Since the matter is sub judice, the Supreme Court is expected to grant a stay in favour of the DTH operators till the final verdict is out. Any judgment contrary to this will hurt the DTH companies. While DTH companies provide for 10 per cent licence fee on overall revenue in their profit and loss account, they pay less (only on subscription revenue net of content cost) at about 5 per cent of overall revenue. The rest is booked as a provision in the balance sheet, along with applicable interest. As of 31 March 2013, Dish TV’s closing provision pertaining to regulatory dues (including interest) stood at Rs 653.66 crore ( Rs 6.54 billion). DTH operators are hopeful that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) would bring down the licence fee from 10 per cent to 8 per cent. Since this will be applicable prospectively, it will have no impact on the current case. The final decision on the licence fee structure will be taken by the new government.

Read more at: Govt asks DTH operators to cough up Rs 20.7 bn as licence fee dues | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com

Rs 2,000 Crore = 2 billion not 20 billion :tup

 

[Sarkar]

RE: Govt asks DTH operators to cough up Rs 20.7 bn as licence fee dues

Rs 2,000 Crore = 2 billion not 20 billion :tup

it's American billion, not British one bro. So 1 billion = 100 crore. so 2000 crore = 20 billion.

 

[dipak]

I&B seeks over Rs 2k crore from DTH companies as license fee

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has raised a demand of over Rs 2000 crore from six private Direct To Home (DTH) companies, which it says owe this amount as the license fee.

The ministry had sent the demand letters to all the six DTH players which collectively amount to around Rs 2,068 crores, officials said.

Officials said that as per the guidelines for DTH services, the licensee's are expected to pay an annual fee which is equal to ten percent of the firm's gross revenue.

However, the matter was contested by the DTH firms as they disagreed with the criteria laid down by the ministry to calculate gross revenue and the issue has been going on in the courts for some time now, sources said.

"Though cases related to the matter are still sub judice, the ministry sought legal opinion to know whether it could raise the demand as per the gross revenue criterion. After receiving the legal opinion, the ministry has raised the demand," a senior official said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/media/entertainment/media/ib-seeks-over-rs-2000-crore-from-dth-companies-as-license-fee/articleshow/32863268.cms

 

[M.J.Sadiq]

RE: I&B seeks over Rs 2k crore from DTH companies as license fee

If I am not wrong, this is posted here...

Link Removed