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NEW
DELHI: Prasar Bharati is to get a loan of Rs 3.26 billion
towards setting up an ‘International Broadcasting Centre’
and other facilities as a host broadcaster for the Commonwealth
Games 2010.
This
is in addition to the grant-in-aid to the tune of Rs 11.42
billion, according to the Union Budget for 2008-09 presented
to Parliament today by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
The
loan will also be aimed at meeting the capital expenditure
of the public service broadcaster.
In
a major decision taken during the presentation of budget for
2000-2001, the then Government had announced that since Prasar
Bharati was an autonomous organisation, it would only receive
grants-in-aid and loans from the total budget of the Information
and Broadcasting ministry.
This year’s loan is almost two times the revised estimate
of Rs 1.67 billion (as against the allocation in the budget
of Rs 2.17 billion) in the Budget for 2007-08. Similarly,
the grant-in-aid last year was Rs 10.87 billion.
The total budget allocation for the I&B ministry in the
Budget for 2008-09 is Rs 19.10 billion as against Rs 16.10
billion in the revised estimates for 2007-08.
There is a marginal increase in the allocation for films from
Rs 718.5 million in the revised estimates for 2007-08 to Rs
848.5 million in the Budget presented today. In addition,
there is an allocation of Rs 46.6 million for film certification.
The budgetary allocation for films is aimed at covering the
Films Division, the Directorate of Film Festivals that organised
national and international film festivals, the Children’s
Film Society, India, and the training institutes in Pune and
Kolkata.
The National Films Development Corporation, which recently
resumed investment in film production, is to receive a loan
of Rs 80 million.
While the ministry had only used Rs 501.4 million of the budgetary
grant of Rs 848 million on advertising and visual publicity
during 2007-08, the allocation has been raised to Rs 743.6
million in the new budget.
Interestingly, the allocation of Rs 358.5 million for Press
Information Services includes funds for a subsidy for running
India’s news pool desk of non-aligned news agencies pool
through the Press Trust of India despite the fact that the
news pool has been non-existent for several years.
Though Chidambaram said the Northeast would continue to receive
special attention, the lumpsum provision for projects/schemes
for development of the region and Sikkim has come down from
the Rs 190.2 million (as against the Rs 205.2 million in the
budget for 2007-08) to Rs 179.6 million in the new budget.
There is a provision of Rs 30 million to the Electronic Media
Monitoring Centre for monitoring TV channels and radio stations
for violation of programme and advertising codes. The provision
in the budget had been Rs 59 million but the EMMC had used
only Rs 30 million, according to the revised estimates for
2007-08.
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