Judgment No. CCZ 9/2016 19 Const. Application No. CCZ 316/2012 The applicants’ contention in each case was that it is a matter of speculation whether the ZBC is utilizing the revenue accruing to it from the listener’s licence fees for the public purposes prescribed by the Act. The argument was that there is lack of transparency and accountability in the manner in which the revenue is administered. The reason given was that financial activities of the ZBC are not subject to mechanisms that ensure public scrutiny and accountability. The requirement is not that the licence fees collected must be shown to have been used in the public interest for the obligation to pay them to qualify as a “tax”. The element of the test is that at the time the value of the obligation is fixed and collected it must be intended to be used for the public benefit. At that stage there is no requirement that the competent authority should show that the money has actually been put to its intended purpose. Whether the ZBC does not use the funds for the purposes of the statute is not a matter going into the determination of the question whether the money compulsorily payable as a licence fee is a tax. If the amount paid into the general funds was used towards an unauthorised object that cannot reflect back upon the provision imposing the tax or authorizing its collection so as to make it invalid. The use of public funds is not an issue in an action for a declaration on the constitutional validity of a statute. A law cannot be declared invalid simply because it is misused. In any such event, the appropriate remedy would be a mandamus compelling the authority administering the public funds to utilize them for their intended purpose.