UNI
New Delhi, Aug 7: Under the existing guidelines, no foreign newspaper has been allowed to be published from India. However, 48 foreign magazines/journals have so far been permitted to bring out their Indian editions, the government said on Monday.
This information was was given by Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunshi in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
Replying to another query, the minister said a Committee, headed by the Information and Broadcasting Secretary, was constituted in March last year for suggesting a viable capital and financial structure of Prasar Bharati to strengthen its functioning.
"The Committee has dealt and deliberated on the restructuring options available and submitted its report to the Government, which, inter-alia, also include a suggestion for introduction of license fee at an ad-velorem rate of 5-10 per cent on all the TV sets at the point of production, collected through Excise Department,'' he said.
The minister said the report was currently before the Group of Ministers (GoM), constituted by the Government to examine the various options pertaining to functioning of Prasar Bharati.
"Providing any sort of financial assistance to Prasar Bharati, including the issue of license fee, would depend on the decision of GoM,'' he added.
To a questioner, he said two FM channels of All India Radio (AIR)-- FM Rainbow and FM Gold -- were functioning.
"There are 16 stations, which are originating programmes as FM Rainbow channel, and four stations originating FM Gold-type programmes. In addition, there are 70 local radio stations, 16 non-local radio stations, 25 Vividh Bharati and 30 relay centres transmitting programmes over FM transmitters. Thus a total of 161 transmitters are functioning in FM mode,'' he said.
Further, 27 private FM channels are also functioning in the country. The revenue earned by Government from AIR FM stations during 2005-06 was Rs. 33.25 crores. Total revenue earnings from Government and private FM stations as on August 2 was Rs. 675.06 crore.
He said proposals for 16 AIR FM transmitters were pending while Letters of Intent for 239 private FM channels had been issued. Out of this, 237 FM channels are scheduled for commissioning by the end of next financial year.