By George Tan, Guest Columnist I received a TV Licence Payment Advice from MDA requiring me to cough up S$110 to pay for the annual fees a few days ago. Like any ordinary Singapore citizen, without wanting to argue why it is totally unnecessary for such fees to exist, I surrendered without a fight and went to look for a AXN machine near my house. As I dragged myself to pay, I read the payment advice more closely. The more I read, the more I think and the more I am upset.   First two highlights were that it is an offence to have a TV set at my premises without a valid TV licence. And authorised licensing officers would be conducting inspection for the presence of any TV set. Next were the late payment fees were $25 and penalties after late payment stage is $200 and above. At the back of the letter is a comic strip with the highlight of why the need for TV licence. The reason stated was that “Under the Broadcasting Act (Cap.28), it is be an offence to have a TV set at your house without a valid TV licence. Authorised licensing officers would be conducting checks on properties with no TV licence. A fine of $200 shall be imposed if a TV set is found at your home during inspection.”   In the court of law, you are presume innocent until proven guilty. In this case, it is not true. If I buy a TV for home decoration and I don’t watch TV programmes on it, why should I pay for a TV licence which is suppose to be licence for me to watch TV? So isn’t licence like the car COE? As long as you buy a car, you must pay for the licence to own the car. After 10 years, you must buy the licence again. For the TV, its annual fees is $110 which means its 10 years fee is $1320. But the car is a choice, is the TV a choice? If the government wishes to speak to the people, can it do it if its people don’t have TV? Furthermore, if I rented a place out to people, and those people bought a TV set, I would be fine for allowing a TV set in my house. But the point is that if i rented out the house without a TV set and on one fine day the tenants decides to buy a TV,  why should I be the one responsible?   Another thing. Authorised licensing officers can conduct inspecting for the presence of any TV set implies that they can search any house without a warrant. So if any licensing officers feels that on one fine day, they are irritated with hapless victim, they can go to anyone’s house in Singapore and conduct a search. I should have taken note of such privileges when I was looking for a job. There are many people I would like to irritate if I have the power, boy would I want to get them.   The best part of the letter is this. The payment advice was sent to my new HDB flat whereas the TV licence fees is for my old flat which I handed back to HDB more than 6 months ago. As I last remember, a person isn’t allowed to own two HDB flats in Singapore. And I have paid for the TV licence fees for my new house a few months ago. And looking at the address of the new flat, can’t MDA conclude that I have moved and is therefore chasing after the wrong man? And can I sue them for causing undue stress for threatening to fine me for not paying up for something I am not responsible for on time? So what I am going to do is to call up MDA soon and tell them to go over to my old flat and search around for a TV. They can’t sue me for asking them to learn from their mistakes, right?