PTV $3 Million Write Off Approved since April; took 8-months to get to HOA

By Deandrea Hamilton & Dana Malcolm 

Editorial Staff 

#TurksandCaicos, December 20, 2022 – A $3 Million dollar tax write-off may be just what People’s Television, (PTV) needs for the company to come back with a new announcement, that instead of closing its doors temporarily on December 31, 2022 it will remain open; but it took the TCI government eight months to move from approval at Cabinet to vote in the House of  Assembly and it may be too late.

Five days after PTV, the only local TV Broadcaster in the country, announced it would suspend operations, going off air by December 31st, The Turks and Caicos Islands Government quickly approved a $3.19 million write-off in the House of Assembly.  But that gesture of goodwill for the struggling company had been approved by Cabinet all of eight months ago on April 20th.

Some say bureaucratic red tape, others say plain old forgetfulness led to the extreme delay and last week the motion made it to parliament and was unanimously supported by members of the Turks and Caicos House of Assembly.   A last ditch effort, it seemed to save the fledgling telecommunications company.

Magnetic Media reached out to Otis Morris, Minister of Home Affairs with responsibility for Broadcasting and Telecommunications for details on the time lapse.  Morris told us the timing was off because the Government had so many procedures to get through.

The write-off was passed in under two hours on December 12th.

In an email, PTV informed subscribers that it would have to go off air and reboot in future.  The outpouring on the potential loss of the indigenous company, started by the late Peter Stubbs brought swift reaction by the TCIG.

Moved by Morris on December 12th in the House of Assembly, the write-off applied to license fees owed to the government.  Andrews Communications, which is the parent company of PTV, should have been paying those license fees at a rate of seven per cent of profit or $250,000 in yearly fees from 2006. The amount they still owed in 2022 stood at exactly $3,429,053 million.

The motion proposed that the House of Assembly approve a write off of 90 per cent of that arrears, leaving Andrews to pay $342,905 over a grace period of seven years.

The outstanding bill for the regulatory fees of PTV, to the tune of $104,647.60 was also written off.

Opposition Leader, Edwin Astwood supported the government motion.  Premier Washington Misick, in agreeing to wipe PTV’s slate nearly clean,  noted that there was a huge void in positive domestic and culturally aware programming.

PTV has not yet said if the $3 million dollar debt forgiveness had anything to do with their decision to announce closure or whether the write-off will change its decision to suspend operations.

Magnetic Media’s request for comment and an update, have so far gone unanswered.