JOHANNESBURG, Nov 2 (Reuters) - South Africa is proposing a new 1 percent tax to boost its cash-strapped national broadcaster instead of relying on licence revenues, newspaper Business Day reported on Monday.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation made 822 million rand ($105.7 million) for the 2007/08 financial year in licence revenues, the daily said, and the new levy may more than double that.

"A tax of up to 1 percent would be imposed on taxpayers above their personal income tax to assist broadcasting," the daily quoted the director general of the Department of Communications, Mamodupi Mohlala, as saying.

She said the broadcaster should concentrate on local production, not collecting fees, but critics of the new levy say is too much for citizens already facing a 45 percent hike in electricity costs this year. ($1=7.780 South African Rand) (Reporting by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; editing by Simon Jessop)