The Hindu Business Line : BSNL against cut in levy on international calls — `Will benefit only users in other countries'

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BSNL against cut in levy on international calls — `Will benefit only users in other countries'

Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi , Dec. 7

BHARAT Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has told the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that any move to bring down the access deficit charge (ADC) on international long distance (ILD) calls would be against national interest.

The BSNL move comes as the telecom regulator is planning to bring down the deficit charge on ILD calls from Rs 4.80 a minute to below Rs 2.

In a letter to TRAI on Monday, the State-owned company said the ongoing review of the ADC regime should not have any impact on BSNL's revenues.

It has pointed out that at a time when operators in other countries have increased the termination rate to as high as 23 cents, the Indian regulator was considering a reduction. "A reduction in ADC on ILD calls will only benefit subscribers in other countries. It will not result in any benefits for Indian customers. If our subscribers are paying a high termination rate for calling other countries then why should we keep our rates low," said senior BSNL officials.

They added that since TRAI cannot regulate the termination rate for ILD calls from India, it should not intervene in termination rates for calls to the country.

BSNL currently gets around Rs 4,500 crore from ADC payments made by other telecom operators.

Access Deficit is a sort of a levy imposed by TRAI on telecom operators for supporting rural telephony. Since BSNL owns a majority of the rural network in the country, most of the ADC collected goes into its kitty. Deficit charges on ILD calls have specifically come under the spotlight in recent months after Reliance Infocomm was charged with routing long distance calls illegally to avoid payment of the charges.

TRAI has justified a reduction in ADC on long distance calls on the ground that it would enable in removing grey market operations. At present, due to the higher arbitrage, operators find it attractive to route long distance calls illegally. The move has the support of private ILD operators.

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