Cable operators up in arms against Hathway, MSOs

Hyderabad: The city cable operators have alleged that they were being cheated by Hathway and multi system operators (MSO), as they do not provide proper invoice to them. After the implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST), the cable operators were paying 18 per cent GST as against 14 per cent entertainment tax earlier. The cable operators demand that the State and Central governments lift GST on cable connections. 

With people opting for DishTV and Direct to Home (DTH) services, the cable operators have been forced to bring down the monthly cable connection charges to survive in the cable business market.  Speaking to The Hans India, All Cable Operator Federation, President Jagdishwar Rao said that the local cable operators purchase broadcast from MSO and Hathway and sell it to the end users, but MSOs and other operators do not provide invoices with actual charges to local operators. He said “We have to pay four per cent extra tax when compared to entertainment tax earlier, due to which we demand that there should be an agreement between cable operators and MSOs.

Jagdishwar said, “We purchase HD box from MSO but if the box is not in working conditions we have to replace the box free of cost but have to pay to MSO because of which we are running in losses”. He said due to improper signal many customers were switching to DTH, there were nearly 20 lakh cable users in the city and 20 per cent were using DTH. 

BY Aneri Shah