The Finance Minister has said the government still planned to scrap TV licences by the end of the legislature but, until then, another branch of the government still intended chasing defaulters for overdue payment.
The issue with TV licences erupted again last week when The Times revealed the government was contemplating legal action against some 35,000 defaulters who collectively owe the government €1.2 million (the licence fee is €34.95).
Labour MP Owen Bonnici asked in Parliament on Wednesday when would the electoral promise to remove the annual TV licence be implemented. Finance Minister Tonio Fenech replied: “The government’s electoral programme is implemented over a period of five years – throughout the legislature.”
The removal of the licence was one of the Nationalist Party’s 353 electoral promises for the 2008 general election. The measure had even featured in the 2008 pre-Budget document but never made it to the Budget speech.
Yet, despite the government’s commitment to scrap the licence, a Communications Ministry spokes-man insisted that the government would continue collecting the levy until the law was changed. “If it did not it would be criticised by the Auditor General for being derelict in its duty. The decision on whether or not to abolish TV licences is not taken by this ministry,” the spokesman said.
The levy was initially introduced to subsidise the national television station. However, following the restructuring of state television in 2004, Public Broadcasting Services stopped taking the licence money and this went to the Communications Ministry.
Although according to the 2008 Household Budgetary Survey Maltese households own nearly 230,000 television sets, there are only 119,824 licences in existence, a simple comparison which shows that just under half of TV sets on the island are unregistered, which means the government is losing out on a potential €3.8 million in revenue
Of the registered sets, 35,367 are unpaid while the rest – 84,457 – raked in about €3 million for the government in 2009.
According to the law, each new television set has to be registered with the government.
More stories from The Times in the News section.