MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING (Smt. AMBIKA SONI)
(a) to (e) : A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (e) of LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.166 FOR ANSWER
ON 09.03.2010.
(a) & (b) Yes Sir, Special audit of Prasar Bharati was ordered on 25.05.2009 and is in progress.
The scope of the special audit includes the following:
i. General accounting issues on expenditure incurred by Prasar Bharati from grants-in-aid given by Government
of India since its inception, unspent balances not refunded to Government, internal and extra budgetary
resources and reconciliation of receipts and bank statements.
ii. Specific issues of financial management brought out by Member (Finance), Prasar Bharati relating to issues
such as acquisition of Radio Broadcast Rights for three cricket series, investment of surplus funds of Prasar
Bharati in various banks, verification of imprest balances lying with field offices, Debtors profile, etc.
(c) & (d) Yes Sir, Prasar Bharati being a public service broadcaster is not principally guided by commercial
motive in its functioning. The income earned by Prasar Bharati is known as Internal Extra Budgetary Resource
(IEBR). The details of income, expenditure and gap for the last three years and the current year are as under:
(Rs. in crore)
Financial Income Expenditure Gap between Expenditure
Year & Income
2006-07 983.05 1954.67 971.62
2007-08 1035.86 2057.92 1022.06
2008-09 1096.78 2518.88 1422.10
2009-10 1119.00 3098.00 1979.00
For the year 2009-10 figures are provisional. The steep rise in expenditure during the year 2008-09 and
2009-10 is primarily due to the implementation of the 6th Central Pay Commission’s recommendations.
The Government has provided financial assistance to Prasar Bharati by way of grant-in-aid and loan
in the form of Direct Budgetary Support to meet the plan and non-plan expenditure. The assistance
given for the last three years and the current year is as under:
(Rs. in crore)
Financial Direct Budgetary Support
Year
Grant-in-aid Loan Total
Non Plan Plan
2006-07 878.18 255.50 40.02 1173.70
2007-08 974.14 119.13 204.19 1297.46
2008-09 1137.12 81.82 232.11 1451.05
2009-10 1246.42 198.48 150.11 1595.01
For the year 2009-10 figures are provisional.
(e) To consider the financial restructuring and other critical issues plaguing Prasar Bharati a Group
of Ministers (GOM) was constituted in March, 2006. The GOM has been reconstituted on 10th February,
2010 to examine various issues pertaining to the functioning of Prasar Bharati.
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