Govt to charge radio licence fee in electricity bills

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to overburden power consumers with additional charges to steer Radio Pakistan out of crisis, it emerged Thursday.

According to the sources within the finance ministry, the Ministry of Information has prepared a summary to charge Rs15 from consumers on their electricity bills.

Finance ministry officials said the state TV fees will be increased from Rs35 to Rs50 on electricity bills and Rs15 would be given to the Pakistan Radio from it.

They claimed that the decision was taken on recommendations of senate standing committee.

حکومت کا بجلی کے بلوں میں 15 روپے ریڈیو فیس لینے کا فیصلہ#ARYNews pic.twitter.com/Y4BazboLUw

— ARY NEWS (@ARYNEWSOFFICIAL) July 20, 2023

Earlier in February this year, the Senate committee recommended charging Rs500 “radio fee” from all vehicles, excluding motorcycles, at the time of registration to generate additional Rs15 billion per year revenue for the financially-hit state-run Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), commonly known as Radio Pakistan.

The recommendation came from a sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting which met under its convener Irfan Siddiqui of the ruling PML-N to discuss issues related to the PBC’s serving and retired employees who had been facing great hardships due to financial crunch for more than a decade.