Hidden in the recent Indian budget was a boost in taxes on satellite transmission services. CASBAA and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation have written to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram with a clear warning: higher satellite taxes will mean hikes in TV bills for hundreds of millions of Indian consumers. The Associations noted that for the previous decade the trend had been to lower such taxes to facilitate India’s integration with the rest of the world and more closely track rates in other countries. The recent budget reverses that trend, proposing a boost in the tax rate from 10% to 25%. CASBAA and IBF called the higher rate “highly unreasonable, arbitrary and unjustified in prevailing market conditions.” They noted that the increase in taxation will inevitably cascade down and fall on a great mass of Indian taxpayers.
Download the letter here.