TV licence: GBC plans to deduct levies from public workers salaries at source

The controversial television licence fee may be deducted from the salaries of public workers at source as the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) considers more 'decent' way of collection, it has emerged.

According to the Ashanti Regional Director of the GBC, Mr Samuel Kwatia, the move to deduct the fee at the Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD) would make it more convenient for public service workers.

There has been a raging debate over the collection of TV licences by the state broadcaster, Ghana Television (GTV) for sometime now.

While many have called for a revision of Act 1966 (NLC Decree 89), which mandates that Ghanaian households and individuals owning television sets are to pay designated fees, to reflect current happenings, others have blatantly kicked against the existence of any such fees.

But speaking on Garden City Radio on Saturday, Mr Kwatia stated that since the law has not been changed, they are trying to make users pay the levy in a new convenient way.

“The GBC is considering a move to deduct the levy from salaries of the public especially civil servants by a way of making it convenient for them”, he revealed.

Explaining further, he indicated that such an arrangement had existed previously and it about time the state broadcaster revisits it again to enhance collection of the levies.

"We will have to consider that, because I know at first the Ghana Armed Forces were paying it through their monthly salaries every year to GBC and it helped. Hence GBC is still negotiating with the army but on the matter of the civil workers we want to deal with it carefully to avoid any future misunderstanding. "Before we can do that, GBC will have to meet the various workers union to accept the proposal before it can be rolled out”, Mr. Kwatia said.