New Delhi, June 11 : Rationalisation of duty structure on digital set top boxes (STBs) and categorisation of broadcasting services as infrastructure services are some of the proposals the Information and Broadcasting ministry has listed among its wishlist for the upcoming union budget.

The ministry has earmarked the proposals for the first union budget of the UPA government’s second successive innings, likely to be presented in Parliament early next month, and these have been sent to the Finance Ministry which would take a final call.

The ministry has suggested that existing special additional duty of at four per cent and countervailing duty of eight per cent on digital set top boxes be brought to zero per cent, at least for a period of five years, in order to boost Conditional Access System regime.

The I & B ministry also suggested inclusion of broadcasting, cable and DTH sectors in infrastructure sector so that the benefits and incentives applicable to infrastructure industry could be extended to these sectors also for their rapid expansion.

The ministry also included a proposal suggesting that digital cable service providers, DTH service operators and similar digital content distribution service providers be made eligible for a deduction of 100 per cent tax on profits made by them for the first five years. MORE