The television licence fee is a "despised compulsory impost" and should be scrapped, an MP has demanded.
Conservative former minister Christopher Chope said there was "increasing hostility" among the public to the annual charge and the BBC should be funded by other means.
But he was accused of taking an "anarchist approach" to the corporation's funding and warned his plans would see the BBC "close down tomorrow".
Chope's Broadcasting (Television Licence Fee Abolition) Bill - which has almost no chance of becoming law - would repeal part four of the Communication Acts 2003, thereby ending the licence fee by the end of 2012.
The annual cost of a colour TV licence is £139.50 and a black and white TV licence is £47.
It is free for the over-75s and half-price if a person is registered blind. In 2007/08, £3.4bn in licence fee money was collected from the public.
Opening second reading debate on his bill, Chope said: "This is about abolishing the television licence fee, more accurately described as the television tax.
"It is not about abolishing the BBC. Indeed one can be a friend of the BBC, as I am, without being a supporter of the licence fee."
He said he thought the BBC World Service was the best output the corporation produced. "It is impartial, informative and quite often entertaining with the ability to separate news from comment - and all funded by a direct taxpayer grant from the Foreign Office."
He said it encapsulated the BBC's values: "It is a living demonstration that those values do not depend on the licence fee."
But Labour's Andrew Dismore said: "This is a very anarchist approach to the funding of our broadcasting. You want to sweep away the existing method of funding and you have the vaguest idea of what to put in its place.
"This bill should never have seen the light of day... if this bill were to be approved by the House then the consequences would be that the BBC would close down tomorrow."
But Chope said there were already powers for the government to fund the BBC in "alternative ways".
He did not specify what they should be but said his bill would lead to a "big debate" about how to replace the funding.
He added: "It wouldn't shut down, all it would be doing is ensuring that the despised compulsory impost of the BBC licence fee is removed from the statute book."
Chope said the BBC had 744 senior managers, with 672 of them earning more than £70,000 a year and 13 earning more than £250,000 a year.
"These aren't great artists," he said. "These are just the managers. All this creates is a feeling amongst the public who are having to pay this licence fee that something is a bit wrong in terms of getting value for money."
He added: "The present situation is unsustainable. Public service broadcasting by ITV is in grave jeopardy and BBC licence fee payers are in revolt."
Labour's John Grogan, chairman of the all party BBC group, said the licence fee was the "least worst system" for financing the corporation.
"I don't detect a widespread movement of resistance to paying the licence fee," Grogan said.
"If you want high quality (programming) there is a lot to be said for sticking with the licence fee model."
Shadow arts minister Ed Vaizey said the Conservative Party was a "firm supporter" of the licence fee but people should not be put off from discussing whether it should be scrapped.
Chope's arguments against the fee would have been strengthened if he had put forward a "clear and cogent alternative", Vaizey said.
Subscription and an advertising-funded model were alternative options but both had serious deficiencies.
"So essentially what we are debating, in my view, is whether or not the BBC should be funded by a licence fee paid by individual households or funded from general taxation," Vaizey said.
But he did concede the licence fee could be "time limited" due to advances in technology which would no longer mean the need for a TV set in the corner of the room - the basis on which the licence is currently imposed.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd