NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has appealed with the Service Tax Department Tribunal (CESTAT) for recovery of Rs 1.6028 billion deposited because of a ?gross calculation error?.

Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com that the pubcaster had claimed that the demand raised was erroneous, but the Service Tax office had issued a final demand notice on 5 May last year which included a demand of Rs 871 million issued to it in May 2009, with interest and penalty under Section 78. This led to the pubcaster depositing the sum of Rs 1.6028 billion.

A demand notice had been received in May 2009 from the Service Tax Department in respect of service tax liabilities relating to the years 2003-2007-08. This ha stated an unpaid amount of Rs 871 million.

The Member (Finance) A K Jain had in 2011 pointed out this gross error in a letter to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni.

The sources said due to systemic deficiencies within the organisation prior to 2007-08, regular returns in respect of Service Tax collected were not being filed. As a result, the Service Tax Department raised the demand based on income and expenditure figures in the published accounts without taking into account the benefit of Cenvat Credit admissible to the pubcaster, which was not claimed due to these deficiencies.

Non-receipt of data from field offices and deficiencies in collection of accurate data have been identified as the main reasons for the flaw. The problem was compounded by lack of trained accounts staff and the pubcaster has now appointed a chartered accountants firm.

Returns are now being filed regularly, and the pubcaster has paid a sum of over Rs 4 billion (Rs 4,653,297,477) including about Rs 500 million (Rs 499,011,611) in CENVAT and the rest in cash for the years 2008 to 2012.

NEW DELHI: With both Universities and the private sector setting up mass communications schools, the Government has decided to review the mushrooming of such institutions across the country.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said her Ministry was already consulting the Human Resource Development Ministry on constituting a committee for this purpose. The committee would comprise key stakeholders associated with the issue.

Meanwhile, she said the Government had initiated measures to establish Regional Centres of Indian Institute of Mass Communications at Aizawl, Amravati, Kerala and Jammu to promote excellence in journalism. The Minister said she was confident that by the end of the year, an Act of Parliament could be enacted whereby IIMC would become an institute of excellence.

The Minister was speaking after conferring the Seema Nazreth Award for Journalistic Excellence to Indulekha Arvind of Business Standard. The Award instituted by Business Standard, she said, provided the ideal platform to nurture true talent based on professionalism, skills and aptitude for journalism. The criteria for selecting the winner of the award was quite rigorous based on quality of writing, information gathering, analysis and the impact of the published work on society.

The Minister said she was confident that the ongoing debate in the country on the issue of regulation and self-regulation in the electronic and print media would help in bringing about a consensus and a new perspective on issues related to the freedom of press.

Lauding the development of the media and entertainment industry in the country, the Minister said the media landscape had placed India in an exciting position globally where growth was robust with over 82000 publications and 800 channels in the broadcast media. The Media and Entertainment Sector in India grew at 11.2 per cent in 2010. The Minister spoke of the need to focus on celebrating with pride the diversity of India while at the same time appreciating the richness of Indian culture.