Parliament: The government wants to bring all the cable TV networks under digital addressable system within June, 2019 to improve revenue collection from this pocket.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Thursday disclosed the plan while placing the proposed budget for the 2017-18 fiscal in Parliament.

He said the cable TV networks of Dhaka and Chittagong city and their adjacent areas will be brought under digital addressable system within the next 2017-18 fiscal year.

"The cable TV networks of the entire nation will be brought under the same system within June, 2019," he told the House.

He mentioned that there are almost 3 crore television sets in Bangladesh and most of these are connected with cable TV networks. The cable TV operators usually collect on average Tk 250 to Tk 300 per month against each connection from the subscriber.

"Currently, Supplementary Duty in addition to VAT is applicable on this charge. But only a very small portion of the Supplementary Duty and VAT collected by the cable operators from the subscribers is deposited to the Government exchequer."

He mentioned that digitalisation of the cable TV network is very necessary to get rid of this situation and to bring discipline in this sector and above all to disseminate the different messages of the government to people easily by using the network.

The Finance Minister said neighbouring countries have already completed Mandatory digitalisation of cable TV network.

"Completion of such initiatives will establish a digital addressable system of the cable TV networks and also would ensure the collection of due revenue from this sector."