Bharti on Tuesday slammed Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's move to put levy on national and international roaming calls, which will be paid to state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam saying, "it is absolutely irrational" and indicated that STD, ISD tariffs may go up due to this.
Trai has said that calls from roaming subscribers would be treated as long distance calls and accordingly the service providers would have to pass on the levy (Access Deficit Charge) to BSNL at the rate of 30 paise on national roaming and Rs 3.25 on international roaming.
"It looks like Trai has imposed a cess on roaming subscribers. As no long distance network, whether STD or ISD, gets used on incoming calls of roaming users, putting levy on such calls is irrational," Mittal said while launching the celebrations of completing pan-India network.
Indicating that the levy would be passed on to the subscribers by raising STD and ISD charges, Mittal said, "We shall have to appeal to TRAI to relook into it. There is absolutely no need for this," he said.
Asked whether Bharti would challenge Trai's order in the TDSAT, Mittal said "this will be decided by the apex body of cellular operators."
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