GIS

GIS

John Bjarne Grover

GIS is the 'Rundfunkgebühren', the fees that you have to pay in Austria if you have a radio or TV 'bereitgestellt', that means the gear being capable of being turned on for receiving signals. In the info I got when I arrived in Austria in 2004, the fees must be paid if you will be certain that no investigation 'razzia' in search of such apparatuses can be carried out. Here is the info text that is distributed by GIS today (it is in their info leaf 'Informationen zur Meldung von Radio- und Fernsehempfangseinrichtungen'). Since I have no TV, I should strictly speaking not have paid the Gehühren for TV, but as the info text tells, if there is reason to believe that you could be receiving TV signals and do not pay GIS, the authorities have the right to search through your home to see of they can find a hidden TV there. 'Reason to believe' could be e.g. that a neighbour could believe to have heard ORF sounds through an open window (!) and reports it. Clearly I do not want to experience after many years that there have been regular razzias searching through my things for evidence, including copies taken of my manuscripts to collect evidence that there are traces of ORF programs there. So I decided in 2004, and once again when I returned in 2009, that I had better pay the 'protection money' to the state in order to avoid such 'trouble'. I have therefore paid something like 26 euros every month - these are drawn automatically by GIS from my bank account. Some weeks/months ago I got a warning that I had better pay the GIS - fill in this form please - and I went to talk with them. I explained that I have a small FM radio that can be used in cases of emergency - one is obliged to listen to radio if a certain alarm sound goes off - but I never use it and I do not watch TV and have no TV (except for an old analog black-and-white which cannot take in any programs). They looked at their computer screens and said that there is no registration of my payments there. Which cannot true: After my registration for TV and radio GIS in 2009 or early 2010 they started drawing from my bank account and have done so regularly since then. 'It is not registered here', they said. I filled in a form which confirmed that I have no TV and expected to find that their fees would be much smaller - but the payment of these 'protection money' continued as before. I looked up their internet page and it said that if you want to stop paying you must go to Raiffeisen Bank and get an Abmelde form there. I so did but they said in Raiffeisen that Raiffeisen no longer offer this form. (They offer 'Darlehen' of money and things like that).

So what do I do? They still draw 52 euros bimonthly from my bank account.

If they claim that I have not paid, but also claim that they have reasons to send me a form, does that mean that they are entitled by the law to break into my home when I am out and search through my things - and manuscripts - in search of evidence that I have watched the national ORF TV channel?

Of course I should not have paid 'protection money', could be that was the error - but I did not want to give them legal reason to search through my things.

The GIS bureau is situated in Faulmanngasse - and not like the Meldeamt for Zinckgasse which is in Gasgasse.

http://www.gis.at?