The Sunday Times FT - Dispute over TV levies resolved

The Sri Lanka branch of the International Advertising Association (IAA) said last week that the government has told the IAA that it has reached a mutually beneficial resolution to the TV/advertising levy.

This effectively settled an issue that had almost totally halted television advertising of several global brands and other commercials produced outside of Sri Lanka over the past month, the IAA said.

Revisions to the regulations of the government, which was imposed last June, will be revised to reflect a single levy which will include all stations under a two tier structure.

The current levy of Rs. 250,000 per commercial per TV station for 6 months will be revised to an annual flat levy of Rs. 500,000 per commercial to be aired on any and all TV stations. There will also be a reduced levy of Rs. 300,000 for commercials aired for 6 months or less. In addition, the government will more clearly define its classification criteria to better differentiate between a foreign commercial and a local commercial and thus reduce inherent ambiguity of this clause, the IAA said.

The levy to be imposed for repeat telecast of programmes aired by stations too will be revised.

The exact details of these charges will be outlined later this week.

IAA’s local chairman Ranil de Silva said that “everybody we talked to, from the President to the Minister of Mass Communications, to the Secretary of the Treasury, Dr. P. B. Jayasundera and the Secretary of the Media Ministry gave us the opportunity to present our point of view and to understand the complications of this levy.”