Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting, Culture and National Heritage Attaullah Tarar informed the Information Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Thursday about clearance of Rs 1.6 billion in dues to the media industry by the government in a transparent manner, which would eventually help them to pay every media worker salary in time.
The minister disclosed the details about the dues’ clearance in the committee meeting which was presided over by Pullain Baloch and briefed about the functioning of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and its attached departments.
Pointing out a halt in advertisements to certain media channels on favoritism basis in the past, Attaullah Tarar confirmed seamless distribution of the ads to the channels on merit and in accordance with the criteria.
He said there were presence of the dummy newspapers which were being printed only for the sake of ads, describing the practice a major challenge for the ministry that has been taking concrete measure to address the issue.
The minister said there was a proposal in the budget 2024-25 to impose a 10 percent tax on newspaper industry, but the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting opposed the idea that could deal a big blow to the industry which ran through the imported paper. He, during the meeting vowed, more incentives for the newspaper industry.
