The government has extended import duty reduction on set-top boxes till September 30 even as it constituted a panel comprising broadcasters, cable network companies and cable operators to examine the ground preparation for the rollout of the conditional access system for cable television.

Customs, countervailing and special additional duties had earlier been reduced for set-top boxes till July 31.

As per the new duty structure, the basic Customs duty on the boxes stands reduced to 5 per cent from 25 per cent, and the countervailing duty and the special additional duty reduced to nil from 16 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.

The members of the committee include Star India CEO Peter Mukherjea, Sony Entertainment CEO Kunal Dasgupta, Zee Telefilms Chairman Subhash Chandra, Aaj Tak CEO G Krishnan, CNBC TV-18 Managing Director Raghav Bahl, Siti Cable Vice-President Rajiv Khattar, Hathway chief K Jayaraman, RPG Network's D K Sen and representatives of cable operators.

Vijay Singh, additional secretary, information and broadcasting ministry, will head it.

The panel, expected to meet in the first week of August in Mumbai, will look into issues such as availability of set-top boxes, the monitoring process for their installation, and awareness about CAS.

It is likely to meet every week to take stock of the situation. "This will help us take a view on the implementation of CAS," a government source said.

The government has also urged broadcasters to soon announce lower prices for pay channels.

"Channel prices need to be announced before August 1. Otherwise, consumers will have to continue paying what they pay now," a government official pointed out.

The Centre is also likely to step in to resolve the deadlock over the price of free-to-air channels. Cable operators want it to be raised to Rs 180 from Rs 72.