South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC is asking the nation’s government to alter how the broadcasting TV Licence is structured. In essence, it wants to absorb the VAT element, and keeping the 15 per cent for itself, and not handing over the sum to the nation’s treasury.SABC is cash-strapped. Speaking in Parliament SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli described the suggestion as a “short-term” benefit expected to add around 100 million Rand (€48m) to the public broadcaster’s coffers in the current financial year.“We will never get an increase on the TV licence. Making the licences zero-rated [for VAT] would give the SABC a short-term benefit from a liquidity perspective,” Chabeli told the standing committee on appropriations.SABC has been complaining about its revenues for some years. The SABC has made various proposals to parliament in an effort to adequately fund its R2.3-billion public revenue mandate. In a May presentation to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), the SABC raised the possibility of hiking TV licence fees as another option.Only about 19 per cent of South African homes pay the fee (equal to about 2.1 million accounts).“For the previous year, we billed close to close to R4.3-billion and only collected around R800-million. That just goes to show you the evasion rate on those we bill and it does not even take into account those who acquire new TV sets,” said Chabeli.
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