Wages partly blocked, property seized for TV subscription fee defaulters

(Photo: Ivana Vuksa)

It is a part of Media Law Package which includes Draft Law on public information and electronic media. All together should be adopted by the end of August. Serbian citizens are mostly interested in this law on public media services, because it "digs into their pocket".

Earlier announcements for TV subscription fee abolition will come into force when the current law is not valid anymore. There will be a new model of payment at the beginning of 2016. In the meantime public services are financed from the Republic budget.

TV subscription fee will be collected as a tax. Legitimate value of RSD 500 will rise in accordance with growth index of consumer prices. EPS will be excluded from the process and public media service will send payment slips itself. Radio Television of Vojvodina, as well as Radio Television of Serbia have to make a base of users and 3.2 million of them will have to pay the fee, as regular users of ED numbers.

If the parliament adopts this law, written by the working group of Ministry of Culture and Information, those who do not pay for the TV subscription fee could be deprived of property or part of their wage.

New model of payment has to be applied, as the draft law explains, in order to avoid the downsides of the previous one. Less than 30% of people pay for TV subscription fee, which leads to unsustainable operation of public service.

Current "broadcasting services" RTS and RTV will be swapped by Public media services RTS and RTV.

Privileged

Schools, hospitals, disabled people’s organizations and institutions for socially disadvantaged will be excluded from this regulation, as well as pensioners with minimum income who live alone or are breadwinners of the family, the deaf, the blind, the disabled, welfare recipients, owners of a house which is not in use and they already pay for the fee on the other address…