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The House of Representatives has passed on third and final reading a bill that seeks to penalize those who steal cable TV (CATV) signals.
CATV signal thieves will face jail terms once the bill is finally enacted, according to Catanduanes Rep.
Joseph Santiago, chairman of the House committee on information and communications technology.
Santiago, also former chief of the National Telecommunications Commission, said the measure is meant to curb the massive economic losses caused by "epidemic" illegal CATV connections.
"Widespread illicit attachments not only cost CATV service providers staggering financial losses, but also deprive the government of billions of pesos in much-needed tax revenues," Santiago said.
"For every one paying CATV connection, there are now up to three illegal attachments. We now have around 1.5 million paying CATV subscribers nationwide. This implies we may be up to 4.5 million illicit connections," he said.
Philippine cable TV industry groups estimate that their members have been losing at least P7 billion in aggregate annual subscription fee income as a result of rampant signal piracy.
"Based on this estimate, we reckon that in terms of value-added tax revenues alone, at the rate of 12 percent (of P7 billion), we are easily looking at P840 million in foregone tax revenues every year," Santiago said.
"This is without counting the potential extra corporate income taxes on CATV service providers that ought to be earning much more, if not for signal piracy. So we can easily round off the estimated tax revenue losses to at least P1 billion every year," he added.
Under Bill 1409, principally authored by Santiago himself, anyone caught with an unauthorized CATV or Internet connection would face two to five years in prison, and/or a fine of P50,000 to P100,000.
Santiago said the spread of illicit connections "clearly threatens in a big way the economic survival of the local CATV industry."
"Apart from this, the illegal tapping of CATV signal is totally unfair to paying subscribers, who tend to suffer degraded signal quality as well as recurring service interruptions," he lamented.
Once enacted, Santiago's bill would enable CATV providers to recover from pilferage losses caused by the unauthorized use, interconnection or reception of services.
Illegal connections remain unchecked because there is no law to help them catch pirates, according to the 800-member Philippine Cable TV Association. The group said the industry could easily double its annual taxable subscription fee receipts from P10 billion to P20 billion once piracy is stopped.
-- Tech Times Online
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