The Hindu Business Line : Maran favours access deficit charges for 2 more years

THE Communications and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, on Thursday said that the Government was in favour of imposing Access Deficit Charges (ADC) for another two years to compensate Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for setting up telephones in unviable areas.

Dismissing allegations made by cellular operators that BSNL was misusing funds from ADC to subsidise huge tariff cuts announced recently, Mr Maran said if private operators could reduce tariffs then BSNL can also be competitive.

"How come private operators cut tariffs of their services. It must have been profitable for them to do so. It is the BSNL, which provides telecom services in rural areas. Private operators do not go to rural areas, except in some parts of Gujarat. '' said Mr Maran on the sidelines of a function organised by Telecommunications Consultants of India Ltd (TCIL) .

Mr Maran, however, said that the telecom regulator, which is in the process of finalising its recommendations on ADC, could recommend bringing down the quantum of the deficit. Currently, an ADC of around Rs 5,000 crore is paid to BSNL. The amount is collected as a levy imposed on every call that a subscriber makes. Private operators have been objecting to the concept of ADC on grounds that it was not required and because it was pushing up the call tariffs.

Mr Maran, however, complimented cellular operators such as Airtel and Hutch by hailing Global System for Mobile (GSM) technology as the best. "GSM is a world player today. If you have a GSM phone, you have worldwide mobility,'' he said.

On the row over spectrum, Mr Maran said that the national spectrum policy was on the anvil and the Government would make sure that proper justice is done to all operators. GSM and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology based operators are involved in a fierce battle over spectrum allocation with both sides claiming rights to the 1900 Mhz frequency.

Broadband policy next week: On the much-awaited broadband policy, he said that announcements would be made by next week. While TRAI had recommended a number of steps such as permitting use of BSNL's copper network by other players and a number of tax sops, including exemption from payment of service tax for ISPs for five years for penetration of Internet and broadband usage in the country, various government departments had shot down most of these proposals.

On the proposal to raise foreign direct investment in the telecom sector from 49 per cent to 74 per cent, Mr Maran said: ``The Finance Minister is the final authority. We will follow whatever he says on the subject.''