Spanish telcos rally against RTVE tax
July 11, 2018
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spanish telco operators are once again up in arms over the RTVE tax, which they claim is an unfair toll. At a conference, the CEO of Vodafone, Antonio Coimbra, described the 0.9 per cent tax on revenues operators have to pay to finance the public broadcaster RTVE as being an “aberration”.
In Coimbra’s opinion, it does not make any sense for telco operators to pay 91 per cent of the cost of RTVE when there are other video platforms such as Netflix, HBO and Sky.
He pointed out that in Spain, Vodafone is paying up to 20 per cent of its EBITDA in taxes, something that is reducing the amount of investments in the market.
The president of Telefónica España, Emilio Gayo, added that in Spain the telcos “are [already] paying high taxes above the average [in Europe]”.