Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has batted in favour of telecom operators by suggesting a lower licence fee, spectrum usage charge and a goods and service tax (GST) rate of 5 percent.
DoT may take up with Ministry of Finance the issue of reduction in GST rate from 18 percent to flat 5 percent by declaring telecom sector as core infrastructure industry and economy enabler in India, Trai said in a letter to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary Aruna Sundarajan.
Such an effort would make telecom services affordable and facilitate fast digitisation of the economy as well as the proliferation of telecom services in rural and remote areas to achieve the ‘Digital India’ mission.
An inter-ministerial group has been formed to look into the financial stresses faced by the operators and suggest a solution.
As per industry estimates, total debt for the sector is at around Rs 4.5 lakh crore. IMG already had a round of discussion with all the operators and will come out with its decision soon.
Trai also recommended that spectrum usage charge (SUC) for all auctioned airwave should be at a flat rate of 3 percent of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of wireless services and for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA).
The letter has come after the meeting of all telecom CEOs with Trai on June 15.
On the relaxation in pay-out on spectrum auctioned price, Trai recommended that 10 percent of the bid amount can be made as initial payment from the forthcoming auction onward and the balance can be made in 18 years (18 equal annual installments with interest).
The regulator had, in January 2016, also recommended that the balance payment period for instalments of auctioned radio waves be increased to 18 years.
By Baishakhi Dutta
