New Delhi, May 29: The Government has announced huge cuts in import duty on set-top boxes, which would be required for accessing pay TV channels, from 52.8 per cent to five per cent upto July 31. This would bring down the prices of top-range set top boxes from around Rs 5000 to Rs 2000. The set-top boxes will be required to access pay channels under conditional access system (CAS) to be implemented from July 15 in the four metros.
A finance ministry notification said the set-top boxes will attract only five per cent basic customs duty from May 28 to July 31. Earlier the STBs used to attract 25 per cent basic customs duty, 16 per cent countervailing duty and five per cent special additional duty which together is 52.8 per cent.
However, now the Government has decided to bring down the customs duty to 5 per cent and making both the countervailing and special additional duty nil, which brings down the import duty on STBs to 5 per cent.
The notification said the Government would revert to the earlier duty structure from August 1.
Doubts have been expressed, including by political parties, on the viability of CAS in the face of high costs of set-top boxes.
The duty reduction effected yesterday is expected to reduce the prices of set-top boxes that, according to officials, would have ranged from Rs 2000 to Rs 5000, by about Rs 2,000.
The cut in import duty has reduced daily rental of the set top boxes from Re 1 to 60 paise. Bureau Report