Flop of the week: Bakom: Still no solution for fee surplus
For some time now, there have been reports of a surplus of license fees amounting to millions at the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom). Currently, the federal government is holding onto approximately 70 million in radio and TV license fees that cannot be distributed due to a «legislative oversight.».
SVP National Councillor Adrian Amstutz submitted a motion in June of this year demanding that the entire amount be refunded to fee payers. The Federal Council has now requested that the motion be rejected. The annual reimbursement is far too expensive. Instead, the Federal Council wants to make the law more flexible so that between 3 and 5 percent of the fees can be distributed to private broadcasters in future. The Radio and TV Act (RTVA) stipulates that 4 percent of fee income must go to private broadcasters. However, up to now, OFCOM has never been able to distribute this amount of money, as a number of radio and TV stations do not achieve the legally required level of self-financing of 20 to 50 percent due to economic difficulties. As a result, the fees are being reduced.
