01
Indiantelevision.com
NEW DELHI: Even as the grants-in-aid for Prasar Bharati has been raised from the revised estimates of Rs 17.29 billion to Rs 21.80 billion, there is no separate investment by the Government in the pubcaster.
In the Budget of 2012-13, the government had made investments of Rs 2.83 billion according to revised estimates, though the budget for the year had set aside a provision of Rs 4.01 billion. However, there is provision for investment of Rs 2 billion from Internal and Extra-budgetary resources for Prasar Bharati.
An explanatory memorandum says that the grants-in-aid is towards meeting the salary and salary related expenditure.
Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com said this had been done to meet the extra expenditure on salaries which has fallen on the shoulders of the Government since all Prasar Bharati employees who were in employment as on 5 October 2007 have been given deemed deputation status.
Contrary to expectations, the government has not set aside any amount specifically for marking the centenary of Indian cinema or digitisation of the cable television sector.
However, the allocation under ?Secretariat-Social services? covering centenary celebrations and digitisation has gone up to Rs 1.44 billion from the revised estimates of Rs 1.03 billion.
The total budget of the I&B Ministry has been raised to Rs 30.36 billion for 2013-14 against the revised budget of Rs 26.93 billion (against the initial allocation of Rs 27.37 billion) for the previous year.
An explanatory note says that Secretariat-Social services also covers expenses on development of community radio, development support to the north-east as well as Jammu and Kashmir and ?other identified areas?, promotion of Indian cinema through film festivals and film markets in India and abroad, production of films and documentaries in various Indian languages, National Film Heritage Mission, anti-piracy initiatives, the proposed National Centre for Animation and Gaming, and automation of broadcast services.
The allocation under the Film Sector has, unlike last year, been increased to Rs 1.17 billion for 2013-14. Last year, the budget for the film sector was Rs 841.1 million, though the revised estimates had put this figure at Rs 888.8 million. There is an additional outlay of Rs 70.4 million towards certification of cinematographic films.
For the fourth year in a row, the government has not announced any investment in the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).
The allocation for Press Information Services which includes grants to the Press Council of India has been marginally increased to Rs 613.6 from last year?s revised estimates of Rs 574.3 million to meet the expenses for the Press Information Bureau, the Press Council of India, and to the Press Trust of India for running the non-aligned countries news pool.
The allocation to the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre has been marginally increased to Rs 49.4 million from the revised estimates of Rs 44.6 million in 2012-13. The EMMC was set up for monitoring television and radio channels for violation of programme and advertising codes.
The allocation for advertising and visual publicity has been raised significantly to Rs 2.39 billion against the revised estimates of Rs 1.58 billion for 2012-13 following the increase in the advertising rates of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) and the decision to grant advertisements to community radio in addition to print and electronic media.
There is a major increase in the lump sum provision for projects/schemes for development of North-eastern areas including Sikkim from Rs 184.5 million in 2012-13 to Rs 905 million for 2013-14.
