Prosecuting TV licence fee defaulters not our priority- GBC Boss emphasises

The Director-General of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Dr. Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow, says prosecution of TV License fee defaulters is not the corporation’s priority in the interim.

Speaking to an Accra based radio, Citi News, Dr. Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow said it would be unreasonable to expect the courts start prosecuting people immediately.

The Chief Justice set up the special TV license courts to deal with people who refuse to pay the mandatory TV license fees in line with the TV licensing Act 1966 (NLCD 89).

The law notes that, “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.”

The courts, numbering 11, are located in all the ten regions of the Ghana, and first siting begins today Thursday January 4, 2018.

However, the DG of GBC, said the Corporation’s focus is to educate Ghanaians to voluntarily pay the TV license fees.

Dr. Akuffo-Anoff also noted that people ultimately required time to renew and pay their licence, and that the State’s objective is “not to punish people needlessly.”

“We are not prosecuting anybody [today, Thursday]. The first option is to allow people to go and pay voluntarily. To the extent that it is a law, its enforcement will include that people will default and in the event of deliberate defaults… the possibility exists that you will be prosecuted but that is not our preference.” 

In his view, adopting a punitive posture would not be a sustainable way of handling the TV license issue.

“If a person is supposed to paying a TV license for the whole year, why do you arrest such a person on January 4 because a court has been established? It simply doesn’t wash… You can even pay GHc 3 for 12 months. So if I am able to pay GHS 3 and you come and I show you the GHS 3 payment, you can’t effect an arrest because I have paid for the month.”

“If you want people to pay voluntarily, you want to advise them and convince them and bring them along… that is the route we want to adopt. To the extent that it is a law, we want to see it through to the end and to remind the public that the possibility of prosecution exists” Dr.  Akuffo Anoff- Ntow said.

Background:

The Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo, set up the special TV license courts to deal with people who refuse to pay the mandatory TV license fees in line with the TV licensing Act 1966 (NLCD 89).

The law notes that, “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.”

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.

GBC officially reintroduced the collection of the TV Licence fees in 2015 after years of putting it on hold due to non-payments.

Domestic TV users are to pay between GHS36 and GHS60 for one or more TV sets in a household, while TV set repairers and sales outlets are to pay an annual sum of between GHS60 to GHS240.

GBC had in the last two years since the re-introduction, appealed to Ghanaians to voluntarily make their payments.

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