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Telecom tariffs likely to go down

December 01, 2004 19:24 IST

Telecom tariffs are likely to come down further with the Telecom Regulatory Authority saying on Wednesday that it would recommend lower access deficit charge, a levy paid by private operators to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for rural telephony.

Rajan Mittal of Bharti Televentures said, "Whenever such cuts have taken place, we have passed on the benefits to the customers. If (Pradip) Baijal has given his suggestion on reducing the ADC and it is accepted, we will definitely pass it on to the customers".

"ADC will be cut. We will issue the report next week," Pradip Baijal, Trai chairman told newsperson in New Delhi.

Asked whether it will be over all networks or for specified segments like ILD, he said, "We will tell you after a week. I don't decide, the Authority decides. It has not gone to the Authority. I can not take Authority for granted."

Softening its stand on reduction in access deficit charge, Union IT and Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran had said on Tuesday that telecom regulator Trai must ensure that by doing so, the revenues of the telecom PSU do not suffer.

"I never had any objection to ADC being reduced. Trai will make the recommendations and DoT will follow it," he had said.

But Trai has not switched to revenue-share based ADC collection system in this round and would consider it in the next round.

BSNL had a number of objections on this round and those were valid objections, Baijal said.

ADC payment at present stands at Rs 5000 crore (Rs 50 billion) a year and bulk of it goes to BSNL. Private operators have been opposing this levy saying they are facing competition through this.


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