The Hindu Business Line : Over 60% USO fund unused

Of the Rs 10,753 crore collected by the Government in the form of Universal Service Obligation (USO) since its inception in 2002-03, a staggering Rs 7,000 crore is yet to be disbursed.

The Government charges 5 per cent of the telecom operator's annual revenues from telephone usage towards the USO fund, which is used to fund new rural telephony projects in villages identified by the Government.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the undisbursed amount is estimated to cross Rs 25,000 crore by 2010 against a total collection of Rs 37,500 crore which means only 48 per cent of the fund is expected to be utilised for extending telephone services in the rural areas. The numbers assume significance even as the digital divide between rural and urban is ever increasing.

Ministry to blame

DoT officials said the blame for under-utilisation lies with the Finance Ministry, which controls the USO Fund disbursements. "The USO fund collected as a percentage of the operator's annual gross revenue goes straight into the consolidated fund of India. The Finance Ministry allots every year as budgetary provision to DoT for universal services and over the years we have fully utilised whatever has been allotted to us," said a senior DoT official.

DoT officials pointed out that while the Government received nearly Rs 3,700 crore from the operators, it had given a budgetary provision of Rs 500 crore for the financial year 2002-03 and 2003-04 which was fully utilised. Similarly, against a collection of Rs 3,457 crore in 2004-05, only Rs 1,314 crore was allotted for the financial year 2004-05. This has also been fully disbursed. For the current financial year 2005-06, Rs 1,750 crore has been allotted so far when the total collection is over Rs 3,500 crore.

The other reason is the lack of interest among telecom operators to roll out services in the areas for which support is available from USO. Most of the village public telephony projects are being carried out only by BSNL. The only project thatgot the attention of the private operators was the Rs 8,000-crore project for providing telephones in individual rural households launched in 2005.

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