28. 04. 2014

SUBSCRIPTION FEE FOR PSB STILL LEGAL OBLIGATION

Despite last year's announcements from the Serbian Government that the subscription would be terminated, this has not happened so far.

A step towards terminating the subscription was a regulation adopted in January 2014 on temporary financing of public service broadcasters from the budget, but TV subscription continues to arrive with electricity bills at the homes of Serbian citizens. It was envisaged that the PSBs will be financed with 7.5 billion dinars from the budget (5.8 billion for the Radio Television of Serbia - RTS, and 1.8 billion dinars for the Radio Television of Vojvodina - RTV).

The Law on Broadcasting defines paying of subscription fee and there have been no changes to it so far. Therefore, it is still in force, as is paying of the subscription fee. When the law is changed, or when a new law is adopted regulating temporary financing, paying of the subscription fee will be terminated, said Goran Karadžić, deputy president of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA) Council.

According to him, no one may call on the citizens not to pay the subscription fee because the law says the opposite.

It is known that the intention is to change the law and introduce temporary financing which should last till the end of 2015. However, changes to the law are still not in the parliamentary procedure - Karadžić said.

For these reasons citizens who do not pay the subscription should not be surprised if they receive notifications of warning or lawsuits at their home addresses. However, as lawyer Sava Anđelković says, the lawsuit can cover only the debt incurred during past year as the debts before this time are practically subject to statute on limitation.

The statute on limitation for certain debts is regulated by the Law of Obligations. For example, debats for water, electricity or TV subscription have a statute on limitation of a year. If a lawsuit is filed for a period preceeding a year, the sued party can file an objection with the reason being statute of limitation - Anđelković said.

For example, if we look at today's date, a lawsuit can cover only the period 27 April 2013 - 27 April 2014.

Collection of Fee Drops

The National Consumers' Organisation of Serbia (NOPS) says that the collection of TV subscription fee has had a significant drop, and that some issues regarding the subscription payment are unclear. The Regulation on temporary financing of public service broadcasters has been passed. The financing from the budget means using the money of Serbian citizens, but then the citizens are obliged to pay the subscription fee regardless, president of NOPS Goran Papović says.