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New counter-proposal launched for initiative to halve Swiss licence fee

New counter-proposal to the SRG halving initiative launched
New counter-proposal to the SRG halving initiative launched Keystone-SDA

Swiss companies are to be completely exempt from the licence fee until 2035. In return, households should continue to pay CHF335 ($380) a year, recommends a parliamentary committee.

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This is what the responsible House of Representatives committee is calling for in its newly outlined counter-proposal to the initiative to halve the licence fee of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent company.

By 13 votes to 11 with one abstention, the House of Representatives’ Committee for Transport and Telecommunications has adopted a new proposal on how to counter the popular initiative “CHF200 is enough”. This was announced by the parliamentary services on Tuesday.

+ SBC expects major job cuts if licence fee slashed

A first attempt at a counter-proposal that wanted to go further failed in the responsible Senate committee. The House of Representatives committee is now trying to get a majority on board with a watered-down version – and to persuade the initiative committee to withdraw the petition for a referendum.

The planned law is intended to replace the government’s amendment to the ordinance, which, among other things, provides for a reduction in fees for households from the current CHF335 to CHF300.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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