Direct-to-Home (DTH) service providers have urged the government to rationalise tax structure for the sector and reduce their license fee in the forthcoming budget.
They said multiple taxes are causing heavy burden on the sector and no other industry is made to pay double taxation as DTH.
“Till Goods and Services Tax (GST) is not rolled out, the industry should get abatement in paying service tax. We are ready to pay taxes but we should not be taxed by both the Central government and State government,” R.C. Venkateish, CEO, Dish TV and president of DTH Operators Association, said.
The DTH industry is paying entertainment tax to State governments and service tax to the Centre. They are also paying local body taxes (LBT), including entertainment tax, which should be part of GST, Mr. Venkateish said.
“The sector should be allowed tax concessions under Section 80-IA of the Income Tax Act, the digitisation process and the deployment of set-top boxes (STBs) require huge investments and, hence, operator should be allowed to offset their accumulated losses and carry forward unabsorbed depreciation under Section 72 A of the Income Tax Act,” Mr. Venkateish said.
“The government should lower the customs duty on STB and bring it to the earlier 5 per cent. The falling rupee against dollar has put huge pressure on us in importing STBs,” he said.
