GOVERNMENT COMMITTED FOR OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF ENTERTAINMENT
SECTOR
RAJYA SABHA
The Government has
taken several initiatives to bring about changes in the entertainment
sector in the interest of the overall development of this sector.
Access to institutional and bank financing has been facilitated
for the entertainment industry, including films, foreign direct
investment policy for the film sector has been liberalized and
international visibility has been afforded to Indian films by
participation in global markets.
Apart from these,
in order to suggest a policy framework for the entertainment industry,
both at the centre and the States, a committee for development
of the entertainment sector has been set up. The committee had
given its first set of recommendations which, including a recommendation
to fix a ceiling of 60 per cent on entertainment tax, were circulated
among the States and many State Governments have lowered their
entertainment tax rates. An anti piracy training programme was
also organized for police officers based on the recommendations
of the committee, which is expected to be the precursor of many
such training programmes.
In its recent meeting
the committee has made recommendations, mainly relating to a further
reduction in entertainment tax rates, appointment of a nodal officer
in each State assisting in anti piracy matters and facilitating
a single point clearance by State Governments for foreign film
crews shooting in India. The second set of recommendations of
the committee have also been persuasively circulated to State
Governments.
In order to bring
about a receptive investment regime in the entertainment sector,
within India, a committee has recently been set up to suggest
a strategy to facilitate the flow of venture capital into the
sector.
The Government had
also constituted a committee to make recommendations for radio
broadcasting. The executive summary of this committee’s report
may be seen on the Ministry website.
This information
was given by the Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Shri
Ravi Shankar Prasad in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha
today.
