National Council Commission wants to exempt companies from TV levy
Companies should not be required to pay the radio and television license fee. The National Council's Committee on Transport and Telecommunications (KVF) wants to exempt them from the fee.
The KVF adopted a parliamentary initiative by SVP National Councillor Gregor Rutz (ZH) by 14 votes to 9, as reported by the Parliamentary Services on Tuesday. This will now go to the Council of States committee.
The majority of the National Council committee is of the opinion that the SRG should make savings. The promise made during the discussions on the No Billag initiative that the public service remit would be defined more precisely and restricted must now be put into practice. In addition, company owners and employees already pay a fee as private individuals, argue the proponents of a change.
170 million francs less
The opponents of the initiative do not consider it appropriate to provide for a new change in the collection system before the upcoming change to the new levy has been completed. They also point out that without the corporate levy, fee revenues of CHF 170 million would be lost. This would also mean that private radio and television stations would receive less.
The electorate approved the new fee system three years ago, albeit by a very narrow margin. The device-dependent fee will now be replaced by a general fee. This is intended to take account of the fact that most households have receivers, as radio and TV programs can now also be received on cell phones and computers. Households will have to pay less under the new system than they do today: the fee will be CHF 365 per year from 2019. Companies pay a levy that is graduated according to turnover and is due from a turnover of CHF 500,000. Around three quarters of companies will therefore pay no levy. (SDA)
Photo: Parliamentary Services 3003 Bern
