NEW DELHI: A total of 83 applications have been received from letter of intent holders and operational community radio stations for seeking financial assistance which are at various stages of consideration.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar told Parliament today that these had been received under the 12th Plan Scheme of Rs 100 crore for supporting and giving financial support to CRS.

The scheme will support 100 new CRS and thirty existing operational CRS each year, the Minister said.

Meanwhile, he said that the WPC wing of the Telecom and Information Technology Ministry had raised the royalty charges for establishment of CRS with effect from 1 April 2012.

He said a royalty charge of Rs 19,200 was being levied on provisional basis, which is the same as the royalty charge payable before 1 April 2012 by licensees for CRS. This provisional rate was valid up to 30 June this year.

He also said there has been no change in the licence fee which is charged at a rate of Rs 500 per station and Rs 500 for standby equipment.

Last year, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced a new scheme with an allocation of Rs 100 crore to promote community radio stations. The scheme ‘Supporting Community Radio Movement in India’ for providing financial assistance to Community Radio Stations under the component "Community Radio Support Scheme" (CRSS) under the 12th Plan.