Union Cabinet revises guidelines for DTH services; license to be issued for 20 years

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the revision in the guidelines for providing Direct-to-home television (DTH) services in the country.

Addressing a press conference, Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said that DTH will be issued for a period of 20 years for which the license fee will be collected on a quarterly basis.

Further the period of License may be renewed by 10 years at a time.

Earlier, the license was issued for 10 years.

Meanwhile, the license fee has been revised from 10 percent of GR to 8 percent of AGR and the AGR will be calculated by deduction of GST from GR.

"The proposed reduction is intended to align the license fee regime applicable to the telecom sector and will be prospectively applied. The difference may also enable DTH service providers to invest for more coverage leading to increased operations and higher growth and thereby enhanced and regular payment of License Fee by them," a government statement said.

Changes have also been approved for 100 per cent foreign direct investment limit in the industry. Till now, the FDI was limited to 49 per cent, Javadekar said.

"The cap of 49 percent FDl in the existing DTH guidelines will be aligned with the extant Government (DPIIT's) policy on FDI as amended from time to time. The decision will come into effect as per revised DTH guidelines issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting," the statement added.