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Radio and TV licence fees abolished! Yay!

Received this today: "The Government has announced, as part of the FY 2011 Budget, that the Radio and TV (RTV) licence will be abolished. This will apply to RTV licence fees for the period from 1 January 2011. RTV licence fees were first introduced in 1963. They are payable by households and non-residential premises (such as hotels, offices, food and beverage and retail outlets) that have TV or radio sets. They are also paid by vehicle owners (for in-vehicle radio sets), as well as dealers who are engaged in the import or sale of any broadcasting apparatus. The fees collected are used to fund public service broadcast content. In 2009, MDA collected $132.5 million in RTV fees. All 2011 RTV licence fees that have been collected will be refunded by April 2011. MDA will mail the refund cheques to households and other licensees. To be fair to the vast majority of licensees who have already paid the licence fees, MDA will continue recovery of unpaid licence fees for 2010 and before. Licensees with outstanding fees will receive a payment advice from the MDA from 15 March 2011 and have up to 31 May 2011 to pay. Licensees can log on to http://mdaonline.mda.gov.sg with their SingPass or call the MDA Customer Service Hotline at 1800 4785478 to check the status of their licence accounts." This is great for someone like me who pays every year even though the total amount of TV I watch per annum is like what, 12.5 percentage points? Yay! Now you know elections are definitely coming soon! : )

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