About this time each year, Gozitans who possess TV sets receive a greeting from the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications in the form of a TV Licence Renewal Statement, payment of which is due by August 1.
Localities in Malta are billed on a select basis spread over the other months of the year. Along with its sister tax, the despised departure tax which inhibits freedom of movement, the TV licence fee is also an unlawful tax since it inhibits freedom of expression and information; freedoms which the EU holds sacrosanct. Both taxes should have been abolished at the stroke of midnight of May 1, 2004.