Hiking state-run TV fee to Rs100: Rs23 bn additional burden shifted to people

ISLAMABAD: The government has made arrangements for transferring additional burden of Rs23 billion to the masses as Prime Minister Imran khan has approved a summary jacking up the state-run TV fee from Rs35 to Rs100 per month.

The summary will be sent to the federal cabinet for approval. “This phenomenal increase of 187 percent into the fee charged through the electricity bills has been approved by PM Imran Khan for state-owned TV and now it is proposed to be increased from Rs35 to Rs100 per month basis,” top official sources confirmed to The News on Monday.

According to official documents, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on receipt of PTV Board’s resolution for increase of TV license fee from Rs35 to Rs100 per month shall initiate a summary for the cabinet in terms of Section 10 of Wireless Telegraphy Act 1933 and The Television Receiving Apparatus (Possession and Licensing) Rules 1970.

Upon receiving the resolution, the prime minister approved the summary that would now be tabled before the cabinet in the coming weeks. The state-owned TV has been facing financial difficulties so the state-run TV Board floated this idea and approved that the state-run TV fee should be increased from Rs35 to Rs100 all over the country.

The state-run TV is already getting over Rs5 billion from the pockets of voiceless consumers but now it is estimated that they would get Rs23 billion additional from them. This idea of charging state-run TV fee got implemented during the Musharraf regime because it was an easy way to shift subsidy burden to voiceless consumers.