New Delhi, August 16
Cable television services across the country will be suspended from tomorrow with a major cable operators’ forum today announcing its decision to go on an indefinite strike against the proposal to bring them under the service tax net.
The decision was taken by the All-India Cable TV Forum, a group of major Multi System Operators (MSO), which includes Hathway, Siti Cable, IN Cable, RPG, Trinity, the Rajasthan Cable Operators Front and the Federation of Punjab Cable Operators.
“The imposition of service tax on the cable industry is unjustified and we have decided to go on an indefinite strike from tomorrow,” Mr Jawahar Goel of Siti Cable, told mediapersons here.
The forum said its members would relay only four news channels while all other channels would be blocked. The service tax on the cable TV operators was increased from 8 per cent to 10.2 per cent in the 2004 Budget. The cable operators are also demanding the withdrawal of the service tax on multi-system operators.
“We want the withdrawal of the service tax for cable operators. The government is not charging any service tax from DTH operators or movie theatre owners,” Cable Operators United Forum president Virender Gaur said.
