TVRI considers reviving license fees on TV owners
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Dewi Santoso, Jakarta
State television channel TVRI said on Tuesday it was mulling reinstating monthly license fees for television owners across the country in order to collect the funds it needs before becoming a public broadcaster in late 2005.
TVRI executive director Yazirwan Uyun told the House of Representatives' Commission I for security and information affairs here that a private sector company had told the state broadcaster that it was willing to take over the license fee collection service that had once been contracted out to PT Mekatama Raya, a private company belonging to former president Soeharto's son, Sigit Harjojudanto.
"We have received the proposal and will study it further," he told reporters after the hearing.
Refusing to identify the firm, Yazirwan said the license fee would be charged along with the householder's electricity bill.
Under the scheme, Yazirwan said, TV owners who fail to pay their license fees will have their electricity temporarily disconnected.
In the past, the license fee varied depending on the size of the television set. The bigger the size of the TV, the higher the fee.
Lawmakers supported the fund-raising scheme, saying that Broadcasting Law No. 32/2002 allowed such fees to be imposed.
"Charging a license fee is just part of the implementation of Law No. 32/2002 on broadcasting," said Effendi Choirie of the National Awakening Party (PKB), who presided over the hearing.
Several House members, however, suggested that TVRI think out the plan carefully. Otherwise, it could give rise to public protests as had happened in the past. The state channel halted the collection of license fees by PT Mekatama in 1992
TVRI is on the verge of bankruptcy, owing more than Rp 200 billion to the government, Yazirwan said.
Although TVRI already broadcasts commercials, it has difficulties in competing with the country's 10 private TV stations, which used to be required to pay some of their revenues to the state broadcaster.
Yazirwan hoped the government would write off TVRI's debts in order to help it focus on improving its programming amid stiff competition in the world of broadcasting.
Effendi said the House would call on the government to seek the best solution to the TVRI debt, including a proposed debt write-off.
"But TVRI should also actively pursue those private television stations that have not settled their debts with TVRI," he said.
Commenting on TVRI's plan to collect license fees from television viewers, Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) chairwoman Indah Sukmaningsih said the fee was fair as long as the company was transparent with the money.
"As long as it (TVRI) can offer educational programs and be transparent about where the money goes, then the public should support the plan," Indah told The Jakarta Post.
She said that TVRI offered better programs than other television stations.
The other television stations, she asserted, did not provide educational fare for children, and mostly concentrated on celebrity shows, mysticism, reality shows and night-life shows.
"It is no longer clear what the television stations are aiming at --helping avoid brutality and pornography, or promoting them? Thus, if TVRI can come up with better programs, then I think we should support the plan," she said.