Billag

Billag SA is the Swiss body in charge of collecting the tax for the reception of radio and television programs. Since 1998, Billag proceeds, on mandate of the Swiss Confederation, to the collection of fees for radio and television reception. Each year, it sends nearly 12 million invoices to 3 million companies and households in Switzerland. The volume of cashing rises to approximately 1.2 billion Swiss francs (US$ 1 billion). As for the number of recalls, it is assembled to a million per year. Finally, nearly 60'000 processes against evaders are launched.

The head office of Billag is in Freiburg. Billag, which was founded in 1997 by Swisscom as a 100% subsidiary company, employs approximately 260 people. In collaboration with Swisscom IT Services, Billag has a specialized know-how very developed in the mass treatment of invoices. In the last few years, it optimized constantly its processes and works in a particularly effective way. With its services, it facilitates the public utility in the radio operator field and television.

To inform the population concerning the obligation to announce and to pay radio and television taxes also forms part of its mandate.

A fraction of the collected tax is given to the local private radio and television stations while most of the money is given to the SSR which produces public television and radio programs in the four national languages. The tax thus serves to finance the public radio and television broadcasters.

The amount of the tax is fixed by the "Swiss Federal Council". In 2005, the amount of the tax for the inhabitants was of 168.95 Swiss francs (US$ 144.22) for a radio set, 281.40 Swiss francs (US$ 240.26) for a TV set, so 450.35 Swiss francs (US$ 384.48) for a TV and a radio. The rate for the use of reception equipment for professional purposes is around 25% more expensive.

This tax is obligatory for everyone living in Switzerland who owns a TV and/or radio set. The reach of the tax has been extended to include MP3 players, mobile telephones and personal computers.

Households and companies who do not declare their TV or radio sets are threatened with penal procedures and fines of up to 5,000 Swiss francs

Criticism

The validity of this TV and radio tax imposed on viewers and listeners has been disputed. Billag and the organizations who benefit from this money haven been heavily criticized by the general public and by the independent media.

According to news reports appeared on September 27 2007, the "Swiss federal telecommunications office" ("Ofcom") has decided to impose this Radio and TV tax on people and companies that have a broadband Internet connection on the grounds that the quality of the TV images with an ADSL or cable connection is good enough to justify enforcing this tax. For this agency it doesn't matter if the user does or does not view or listen to any of the public stations belonging to the Swiss public broadcasting organization SRG SSR idée suisse. Consumer protection groups immediately expressed their opposition to Ofcom's decision.