By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has appealed to Ghanaians to pay their TV Licence fee after paying his annual subscription fee of GHC60.
The Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament made the appeal when he called on the management of the state broadcaster, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) on Tuesday, July 11, 2023, at the Broadcasting House near Kanda-Accra.
Mr. Bagbin explained that regular and prompt payment of TV Licence fees will enable the Corporation to concentrate more on Public Service Broadcasting and also improve content.
GBC officially reintroduced the collection of TV Licence fees in 2015 after years of putting it on hold due to non-payment.
While domestic TV users are to pay between GH¢36 and GH¢60 for one or more TV sets in the same house every year, TV set repairers and sales outlets are to pay an annual sum of between GHc60 to GHc240.
For commercial TV operators, they are to pay GHc36 per annum for each TV set.
GBC had in the last two years since the re-introduction, appealed to Ghanaians to voluntarily make their payments.
In 2017, the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo set up a special TV Licence Courts to hear cases of people who refuse to pay the mandatory TV licences.
The courts, numbering 11, are located across all the ten regions of the country and are to “sit every Thursday with effect from 4th January 2018 until otherwise directed,” a letter from the Judicial Service addressed to the Director General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GCB), stated.
According to Section 1(a) of the TV licensing Act 1966 (NLCD 89) as amended, “Any person who contravenes any provision of this law or regulation shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.”