ITV

Tag: SITI Cable Network Ltd

  • Entertainment tax: MSOs & LCOs must collect & pay, HC halts Delhi ‘action’

    MUMBAI: The Delhi High Court has held that MSOs (multi-system operators) and LCOs (local cable operators) distributing television signals to subscribers directly are liable to collect and pay entertainment to the government.

    The court’s decision came on pleas filed by four MSOs – Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd, DEN Networks Ltd, IndusInd Media and Communications and SITI Cable Network Ltd. They had moved the court challenging the levy of entertainment tax and vires of the Delhi Entertainment and Betting Tax Rules.

    The four had sought quashing of the Delhi government’s 17 December, 2012, circular and show cause notices issued in January 2014 directing them to deposit tax beginning April 2013. Delhi had threatened to halt cable TV transmission of the MSOs by closing their headends. The government had stated that the assessment of the MSOs bared that they had been indulging in tax fraud in crore since April 2013.

    A bench of justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Badar Durrez Ahemed, however, quashed the Delhi government’s December 2012 circular and show-cause notices served by its Department of Entertainment Tax asking the MSOs to to pay entertainment tax or face action.

    Terming the circular as “without any authority of law”, the bench said, “To be clear, MSOs to the extent that they directly provide cable service to the subscribers without the intervention of any LCO (local cable operator), would be regarded as the proprietors under Section 7(1) and would be liable to collect and pay the entertainment tax to the government,” PTI reported.

    “However, where the MSOs provide the service through the LCOs, the individual LCOs having its own subscriber networks, would be regarded as the proprietors in respect of their individual networks and would be liable to collect the entertainment tax and pay the same to the government.”

    The court made it clear that as far as the assessments related to deposition to tax to the department are concerned, the MSOs “would have to take their own remedies against the assessment orders and/or appellate orders in view of the decision arrived at in this case”.

  • WWIL to raise Rs 3.24 bn via warrants to promoter firms

    WWIL to raise Rs 3.24 bn via warrants to promoter firms

    MUMBAI: Siti Cable Network Ltd, formerly Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd, is raising Rs 3.24 billion from promoter firms to cut its debt and fund digitisation.

     

    The company has received shareholders’ approval for issue of warrants convertible into equity shares to overseas promoter group companies Essel International Ltd and Essel Media Ventures Ltd.

     

    The Subhash Chandra-promoted multi-system operator (MSO) has a debt of Rs 4.5 billion.

     

    The funds will also be for acquisition of MSOs, local cable operators (LCOs) and to meet the working capital requirements.

     

    Essel International and Essel Media will invest the amount in tranches with the first tranche being 25 per cent of the issue price on allotment of warrants on a preferential basis. The balance amount will have to be paid by the two promoter companies within 18 months from the allotment of the warrants.

     

    Siti Cable will issue 16,20,00,000 warrants convertible into equivalent number of equity shares at a price of Rs 20 per warrant. The shares of the company closed at Rs 20.55 per share, down 2.38 per cent, at close on Friday on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

     

    The combined shareholding of Essel International and Essel Media will rise to 29.99 per cent after the two companies pay the full price of the warrants and convert them into shares, from the current 4.90 per cent. Simultaneously, the shareholding of other promoters (which includes Bioscope Cinemas Pvt Ltd with 57.95 per cent stake) will after the conversion of the warrants, fall to 43.09 per cent from 58.53 per cent. Essel Media currently has 3.63 per cent stake and Essel International 1.27 per cent.

     

    The total promoter shareholding after conversion of all the warrants will rise to 73.08 per cent from 63.43 per cent now and that of the public will drop to 26.92 per cent from 36.57 per cent.

     

    The price of the warrants is at a premium of 10 per cent over the price arrived at on the basis of SEBI regulations.

     

    The company has filed for approval of the warrant issue with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) as the two promoter group companies are registered overseas.

     

    The name of the company was changed to Siti Cable Network Ltd following a fresh certificate of registration based on a special resolution passed by the shareholders on 30 August 2012.