Only a couple of weeks ago the hypothesis was raised that the government was moving towards the exclusion of the Rai license fee from the electricity bill. The Draghi government’s decision was aimed at maintaining the commitment made with the EU, as part of the Recovery Plan, relating to the cancellation of “improper charges” from energy costs.
For the moment, however, everything remains as it is. There will be no changes in the way to pay the tax to support public TV, which was included in the bill in 2015 by the then premier Matteo Renzi with the Stability Law. And this only for time-related reasons. Any intervention to remove the tax from the energy bill can be included in the draft of the competition law. But this bill has already been postponed to the Council of Ministers in September, when Parliament will resume work after the summer break.
In the technical annexes to Pnrr, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the government has indeed written its commitment to increase transparency for users in the electricity bill but it does not speak specifically of the RAI fee. It is clear, however, that the tax is part of one of the “improper charges” included in the cost of the electricity bill. Moreover, Europe has never frowned upon Renzi’s decision to attach the tax to the invoice. To push the former prime minister down this path was the idea of eliminating tax evasion. Which actually succeeded. In fact, in just a few months, evasion had gone from 30% to 4%.
The hypothesis of an abolition of the RAI fee from electricity bills has received the support “with flying colors” by the Codacons. “The inclusion in the RAI fee in electricity bills represented a real harassment to the detriment of users, who found themselves paying higher bills due to the decision of the Renzi government”, explained the consumer association.
Much more cautious position, reports the Corriere della Sera, the one taken fromUsigrai, the RAI journalists union: “The discussion on the fee in the bill shows that there is no future for Rai if the question of the certainty of resources is not resolved”. The union stressed that what interests “is that the public service finally has certain, long-lasting, autonomous and independent resources. In order to be able to make a serious industrial plan, without depending year by year on the current government “.