The Hindu Business Line : TRAI seeks overhaul of USO fund management

New Delhi, Dec. 18 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has proposed to spin off the Universal Services Obligation fund administrator as an independent body to make it more effective in taking telecom services to rural areas.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Nripendra Misra, Chairman, TRAI, said, “We have sought for a complete restructuring of the USO fund administration. Right now it is like any other government department and things move very slowly. We need to address the urban-rural divide very urgently for which the USO fund has to be given the authority to achieve the objectives efficiently.”

At present the USO fund is administered as a unit under the Department of Telecom. TRAI has told the Government that as the USO is involved in creating national infrastructure especially in the rural areas, it should be modelled on the lines of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Slow decision making

The regulator said USO Act should be so amended that the funds accruing to USO through the levy is directly managed by the organisation and is not routed through the budgetary process of the Government. “Today, it is seen as the adjuncts of the DoT, therefore, the decision making, criterion for tendering, allocation of projects, monitoring and evaluation remains typically departmental,” Mr Misra said.

The TRAI has also suggested a series of initiatives to improve telephone penetration in rural areas. While the USO fund has about Rs 15,000 crore in its kitty, some of its projects have not taken off. For example, the rural mobile project, which had initially received huge response from the private operators, is only 25 per cent complete after one year since the contracts were awarded.

This is the second time that the TRAI has asked for a unit under the DoT to be spun off as an independent body. Earlier, the regulator had said that spectrum management should not be done by DoT. At present, the Wireless Planning & Coordination wing of the DoT manages spectrum allocation.

“Spectrum availability and allocation should be made transparent. Other regulators have made a roadmap whereby it clearly states how much spectrum is available over a specific period of time and when is it likely to be given out. There is a need of a professional organisation to do this,” Mr Misra said. This recommendation is yet to be accepted by DoT.

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