Mounting pressure on an apprehensive BJP to implement the conditional access system as scheduled on July 15, cable operators on Friday threatened to increase the cable service rates to around Rs 450 in the absence of CAS.

"If CAS is not implemented the consumer will suffer. The rates of cable TV services will go up to around Rs 450," Roop Sharma of Cable Operators Federation of India told reporters in New Delhi, after a meeting with the Delhi BJP President Madan Lal Khurana, who has been demanding the deferment of CAS.

Khurana said the CAS should be implemented only after the confusion about whether it is consumer-friendly is removed.

In a memorandum submitted to him, the COFI said cable operators have invested over Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) in procuring the set-top boxes and CAS equipment by paying advances to manufacturers and warned that if it is not implemented there could be "mass suicides".

Defending CAS as the "need of the hour for the cable industry," it also said the manufacturers have invested crores of rupees in costly plants for the manufacture of the CAS equipment.

It demanded abolishing of entertainment tax on cable TV subscribers and the waiver of eight per cent service tax, besides protesting against the bundling of channels under CAS and excessive advertising on the pay channels.

Accusing broadcasters of trying to derail the CAS implementation, Sharma said they had not yet declared rates of their pay channels, defying the government notification.

The memorandum also had a chart listing the increase in pay channel rates from 1999 to 2003.