Govt calls off its decision to cut licence fee- report (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Indian Govt has reportedly called off its decision to slash the licence fee for telecommunication operators with a large network presence, following opposition from the finance ministry. An Official reportedly said that the communications ministry will notify all telecommunication companies that the licence fee cut, previously planned for 1 April, has been shelved.
Earlier, DoT has announced that the proportion of revenues telecommunication operators pay as licence fee to the government would be cut by 2 percent of their total revenues if they prove that their services are available in 95 percent of the residential areas in a state or a telecommunication circle, with effect from 1 April.
Presently, the incumbents are paying 6%. 8% and 10% (based on the ranking of their circles) of their AGR as licence fee. The cut in licence fee would have help operators to save INR 20 billion in the next fiscal year. The rollback decision will hit Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar and BSNL the most as their networks cover all census towns and large villages in several states.
The time frame to implement the cut is not yet decided. A decision on the licence fee cut will now be made by the new Indian government that comes to power after the April-May general elections.
