The government on Thursday sought to erase the impression that the hike in tariffs for telecom services has been made to favour cellular and private WLL operators patronised by business and upper segments of society.

Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Communications Minister Arun Shourie said  the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India after detailed consultations revised tariffs as part of an ongoing tariff re-balancing exercise to bring the telecom tariffs closer to cost.

Amidst protests from opposition benches, he informed the members that representations against the proposed hike in tariffs for telecom services have been forwarded to Trai for appropriate action.

The minister said Trai, which has power to fix tariffs for telecom services, notified the changes on January 24 and the new tariffs would come into effect from April 1.

He said the tariff specified in the order was in the form of standard tariff package and added the service providers were at liberty to offer alternative tariff packages depending upon their cost and usage pattern of subscribers.

Shourie said no increase had been proposed in tariff of basic telephony with reference to mobile phones.