Prime Minister Imran Khan is close to fulfilling another promise as the federal government has announced to abolish PTV license fee in the power bill.
While addressing the Senate during the question-answer session, the Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that they would make state television stand on its own feet and abolish license fee in bills soon.
He termed the recruitment of employees in the previous government as the biggest problem.
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Fawad said that thousands of employees in PTV were first recruited on daily wages and then regularized. Owing to this, the state television has to spend additional Rs 320 million every month on salaries.
The information minister said that state television received a grant of Rs 550 million from the government.
Before becoming the prime minister, Imran Khan had strongly opposed the collection of PTV license fee and said there was no record of expenditure of around Rs 10 billion collected annually under it.
Notably, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had decided to increase the license fee to Rs 100 per month from Rs 35. However, the decision was withdrawn after immense public flak.
According to a social media forum namely Lawyers of Pakistan, the PTV license fee was imposed some 22 years ago.
The television (TV) transmission in Pakistan started in 1964 and a TV owner must purchase a license from the government. However, the license system was abolished in 1998 and a straight fee was added in the power bill.