Prasar Bharati continues to be in a financial precarious position as its operating expenses far outstrip revenue in the fiscal ended 31 March 2012. The pubcaster's revenue stands at Rs 11.83 billion for the first 10 months of the fiscal, according to data provided by Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources.

      After meeting the operating expenditure of Rs 28.51 billion, its deficit stares large at Rs 16.68 billion for the fiscal till January-end (subject to reconciliation of accounts). Prasar Bharati is yet to make its results public. Out of the total deficit, Rs 13.89 billion has been met from Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR), I&B sources say.

       In comparison, the deficit in 2010-11 had been Rs 12.37 billion, of which Rs 11.35 billion had been met through IEBR. The pubcaster had earned revenue to the tune of Rs 13.10 billion in the fiscal.Meanwhile, the outlay in the Annual Plan (2012-13) for Prasar Bharati has been fixed at Rs 5.85 billion. The Government will provide total financial support in the form of Grant-in-aid and loan.

       There will be a new scheme - Content Development and Dissemination - which is to be fully funded by IEBR of Prasar Bharati towards Revenue Plan component, Ministry sources add. The approved budget for Prasar Bharati under Revenue Non-Plan for the financial year 2012-13 is Rs 14.62 billion. The Government has trifurcated the Revenue Non-Plan support to Prasar Bharati in the form of Grants-in-aid (Salary), Grant for creation of Capital Assets, and Grants-in-aid (General).

All India Radio gets Rs 7.60 billion while Doordarshan gets Rs 7.02 billion of this non-plan allocation, a source reveals

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology has noted that the Commercial revenue earned by Doordarshan is lesser than the projections made during each year of the Eleventh Plan. It states that the growth of the revenue earned by Doordarshan has been “very slow” during these years, noting that IEBR of Rs 50 billion at the rate of Rs 10 billion for each of the annual plans has been assumed for the Twelfth Plan.

In this direction, Rs 4 billion out of IEBR has been earmarked during the year 2012-13 for planned projects of Prasar Bharati. The share of Doordarshan in this regard is Rs 2.5 billion.

The Committee is “surprised to find that on the one hand, specific provision has been made and exclusive outlay out of IEBR has been earmarked for planned schemes. On the other hand, the Ministry has submitted in the written replies that Prasar Bharati may not be in a position to afford the expenditure for planned schemes for IEBR.”

The Committee was also informed that according to the recommendations of the Group of Ministers on Prasar Bharati, the Government will meet expenditure for four categories: Salary & Salary related establishment expenses, expenses on Augmentation & Replacement of Capital Assets and the expenditure on the remaining items, Other Administrative Expenses, and Software & Programme related expenses.

In addition, Prasar Bharati has to supplement IEBR in all these four categories and remain in focus for budget crisis and paucity of funds.

Pending a decision of the Government on the recommendations of GoM, a specific projection out of IEBR for planned schemes has been met for the first time.

The Committee concludes that Prasar Bharati has great challenges in the coming years in regard to generating resources for the activities. The Committee “strongly” recommends that DD should explore all the possibilities of revenue generation so as to meet the targets of projections made for planned schemes out of IEBR.

The Committee also notes that Doordarshan has to prepare for meeting the devised parameters of sharing the expenditure according to the formula suggested by GoM.