'Mallya has enough assets to sell for repaying loans'
Bengaluru, June 26: Fugitive Vijay Mallya has enough assets to sell and replay loans he raised from banks to fund his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, an official said on Tuesday.
"The value of Mallya's assets seized by the authorities concerned is estimated to be nearly Rs 13,960 crore, while he owes about Rs 9,500 crore to a consortium of banks," a law enforcing agency official told IANS here.
On a petition in February 2016 by the consortium of 17 banks for recovery of their dues from the airline, the Debt Recovery Tribunal recovered and transferred to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) assets valued at Rs 7,529 crore.
In a petition to the Karnataka High Court on June 22, Mallya offered to sell under judicial supervision his fixed assets and shares valued at Rs 8,423 crore to repay the outstanding dues to creditors, including banks.
"As most of fixed assets valued at Rs 1,700 crore and shares (pledged/unpledged) worth Rs 4,978 crore, totalling Rs 6,678 crore) have been seized and attached, the ED has to release them for sale," said the official, preferring anonymity.
The Tribunal has so far recovered Rs 198 crore in fixed deposits and balance amount in the bank accounts of the defaulters (Mallya and United Breweries Holdings Ltd) and Rs 73 crore from the sale of the sprawling Kingfisher Villa at Candolim in Goa in April 2017.
As stated by Mallya in a statement to the media earlier, he had deposited Rs 1,280 crore with the high court on its direction in 2013.
In addition, Mallya is ready to sell other assets worth Rs 2,650 crore.
Mallya's six other entities are also willing to sell shares worth Rs 2,888 crore, held in the group companies such as United Spirits Ltd, United Breweries Ltd and McDowell Holdings Limited.
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Union government assumes full control over TV ratings, TRAI role curtailed: Report
New Delhi: The Union government has assumed full control over television audience measurement, removing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from oversight of the ratings system that underpins the country’s ₹36,000 crore television advertising market, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report in Mint said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) now has exclusive authority over the framework governing how television ratings are measured and regulated. TRAI had been entrusted with oversight of TV ratings in 2012 during the UPA government’s tenure. TRAI is no longer mentioned in the relevant policy document, effectively vesting sole authority in the MIB.
The report said TRAI will continue to regulate other aspects of broadcasting, including channel pricing, advertising caps, interconnection and distribution norms, service quality and compliance standards. Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.
Television Rating Points (TRPs), which reflect viewership patterns, guide advertisers in deciding where to allocate spending across channels and time slots.
A government source quoted in the report said the ministry could modify TRAI’s decisions even when the regulator oversaw broadcasting.
A former CEO of Prasar Bharati told the newspaper that the MIB has historically regulated rating agencies through licensing and guidelines, and by holding them accountable under existing norms.
During its tenure overseeing ratings, TRAI had taken decisions affecting the broadcast sector, which included capping advertising time at 12 minutes per hour following complaints about excessive commercial breaks and it now remains unclear how these matters will be addressed under the revised arrangement.
Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at TRAI, was quoted as saying that merging regulatory functions with policy oversight and removing an independent regulator from the process was a retrograde step.
TRAI’s involvement in broadcasting had earlier attracted criticism as well. In 2012, its consultation paper on quantitative limits on television advertising was viewed by some as overlapping with the Advertising Standards Council of India’s code. Subsequent recommendations covering television audience measurement, ownership of news channels and issues such as paid news had also raised concerns among sections of the industry.
Television ratings have faced scrutiny in recent years, including during the controversy involving the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), where officials of the ratings body were prosecuted over allegations of manipulation of viewership data.
