Chief Justice Sets Up Special Courts To Prosecute People Who Fail To Pay TV License

 

You could soon be in trouble for not paying your tv license fee, as a new breed of court is being set up to purposely deal with defaulters.
The Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, has ordered the new court to be set up following a request from the national broadcaster, GBC.
Officials of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation Corporation requested help to aid collect the tax, which Ghanaians have been slow in embracing, from the Chief Justice.
The Corporation requested for the special courts to be set up and the CJ acquiesced, with special courts to be empaneled in all ten regions.
“The Courts located in the Regions are to sit every Thursday with effect from 4^th January, 2018 until otherwise directed. The time for the Court sitting is 8:30am to 4pm,” the CJ said in the letter authorizing the request.
According to the law, refusing to pay your licence would make you liable to a jail term not exceeding one year.
Section 1(a) of Television Licensing (Amendment) Law, 1991 states as follows: “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.”
All dealers in tv sets are expected to be pay Ghc 5 per month to operate, whilst individual consumers would have to pay Ghc 3 per month per television set to make sure they never appear before these courts.