11 crore set top boxes needed for Phase III and IV of cable TV digitisation
Updated: Sep 13, 2014 02:21:39pm
During the meeting held yesterday the manufacturers assured Julka that they would seize this opportunity to make digitisation an India success story and fulfil the Make in India mission of the new Government, an official release said.
The manufacturers appreciated the efforts of the Government for resolving their long pending demand of C-form. They informed that they have sufficient installed capacity to meet full demand of STBs locally.
They informed that the measures would help the indigenous manufacturing industry to give employment to about 50,000 people and would attract an investment of about Rs 500 crore. Further, it would generate local support facility for repair of STBs and would also help in smooth implementation of digitization initiative in the country.
After taking over as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar had taken up this issue to support indigenous manufacturing of STBs.
On 13th Aug 2014 Ministry of Finance extended the facility of Form ‘C’ under section 8(3) (b) of Central Sales Tax Act 1956 to Set Top Boxes thus fulfilling the major demand of the domestic STB manufacturers. Domestic STB manufacturers would charge CST at the rate of 2 per cent against VAT of 12-14 per cent being paid earlier.
The Phase-III of Digitization would cover all other urban areas (Municipal Corporations/ Municipalities) which were not covered in first two phases. Phase-IV would cover rest of India. It is estimated that another 11 crore STBs would be required to achieve complete digitisation.
The meeting was attended by the members of Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) and representatives from STB manufacturers such as My Box Technologies, Dixon Technology, Videocon, Jabil, One-Eight Technologies, Skyworth Digital, Spectra Innovations, Indieon, Logic Eastern, and Simmtronics. (KNN/ES)