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Wikimedia (File photo) / TVM in Maputo
Mozambique’s publicly owned television station, TVM, is facing difficulties in paying its staff this month, because the Ministry of Economy and Finance has slashed the subsidy from the state budget on which it depends, reports Friday’s issue of the independent weekly “Savana”.
“Savana” has obtained a copy of the communication from the Ministry, dated 17 January, informing TVM that the subsidy is being cut by 60 per cent. The paper notes that it was the subsidy, and not TVM’s own revenue (from sources such as advertising), which sustained the payment of wages.
An internal communication from the TVM management to the company’s staff, dated 20 February, admitted that the cut to the subsidy “has a negative impact on the payment of wages on the usual dates, and weakens our finances in complying with the obligations of the company”.
Normally wages at TVM are paid by the 20th of each month. But the management statement, announcing the financial difficulties, said the February wages would be paid “on a date to be announced”
The management said the situation arose because of the economic difficulties facing Mozambique, and the measures to restrict expenditure which the government is applying across the board. The TVM leadership is now trying to persuade the government to increase the subsidy to plug this gap.
The chairperson of the TVM board, Jaime Cuambe, told “Savana” there was no cause for alarm. “This problem is not exclusive to TVM”, he said. “Restrictive measures are taking place throughout the country. So there’s nothing abnormal about what happened”.
Indeed, Cuambe argued there was no real delay at all in the February wages – merely a “perception of delay”, since TVM is not obliged to pay wages by the 20th.
“The date stipulated for paying wages is the 25th”, he said, “but when the company has the revenue, naturally it pays in advance, hoping that the state will comply with its part”.
Cuambe admitted that the drastic cut in the subsidy is a challenge, since TVM is now obliged to seek alternative sources of revenue. TVM would have to be “creative and aggressive”, he said, “creating other mechanisms to bring in revenue”.
According to “Savana”, TVM has a monthly wage bill of 23 million meticais (about 334,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates), but this month only 11 million meticais was available. Worse still, the banks no longer accept requests from TVM for advances to pay wages, on the grounds that the company is already in debt.
According to the reports from the Administrative Tribunal (the body that checks the legality of public expenditure) the state subsidy for TVM rose from 134.5 million meticais in 2010, to 286.8 million in 2013, and 354.9 million in 2014. It fell slightly in 2015 to 338.1 million meticais, and the figure for 2016 is not yet available.
TVM has been expanding in order to cover the entire country, and now operates two channels. It has a total work force of around 600.
It is also operating in a fiercely competitive market, where several privately owned stations compete with TVM for audience share, and clearly eat into the volume of advertising it can expect to receive.
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