The government will scrap plans to make NHK subscription fees mandatory during the current Diet session, government sources said Thursday.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has judged it difficult to include the provisions in a bill to be submitted to the Diet because NHK refused to present fee cuts and management reform plans at an early enough date. The current Diet session ends June 23.

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga said NHK needs to cut subscription fees by 20 percent and to promote management reforms before the fees can become mandatory.

The ministry asked NHK to present its plan as a condition for making the fee payments mandatory under revisions to the Broadcast Law during the current Diet session.

“We’d like the ministry to wait until September,” NHK Chairman Genichi Hashimoto said of the requested plans at a news conference Thursday.

Households and businesses with TV sets are required to sign subscription contracts with NHK under the current Broadcast Law, but the law does not specify that viewers are required to pay subscription fees.

The law also does not carry penalties for failing to make payments.

The fees make up most of NHK’s revenue.

Scandals at NHK, including embezzlement by a producer and alleged censorship, have prompted hundreds of thousands of viewers to refuse to pay the subscription fees in recent years.

NHK last year started legal action against targeted nonpayers, hoping the move would get others to pay up.