Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw has questioned the future of the licence fee and raised the possibility that it could be scrapped if Labour remain in power.
There was "good reason" to have a wide-ranging debate on the £3.6 billion settlement and if it should continue in the long-term "as the best funding mechanism" for the BBC, he said.
This would include the size of the corporation and the size of the annual licence fee, as well as its future.
Mr Bradshaw told Sunday Live on Sky News: "The BBC is free at any time to say 'Look we don't need all the money we have got, have some back'.
"But it is very, very important that political parties in between the years when the licence fee is set don't give a running commentary like that because that would be a very serious breach of the BBC's independence.
"But I think there is a good reason to have a debate in the run-up to the next licence fee, which we shall have if we are in government, as to how big the BBC should be, how big the licence fee should be, even if we should continue to have a licence fee in the long-term as the best funding mechanism.
"These are bound to be matters for discussion, it is important that we have that debate and it is important the public are involved in that debate because in the end they are the people who pay for this service and consume the programmes."
Mr Bradshaw declined to become involved in the row about proposed BBC cuts, which would reportedly close down digital stations BBC 6 Music and the Asian Network.
He admitted he had never listened to 6 Music but said the station's future was a matter for the the BBC to decide.
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