With competing claims for funds, DoT not in favour of tariff subsidy
Multiple requests and letters from private telecom companies and industry bodies notwithstanding, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is unlikely to provide any support in the form of floor price for tariff or subsidy for the same in the near future, senior government officials said.
“There are multiple and competing claims on the total funds that we have. And the priorities of the government must be on food, fertiliser and farmer subsidies. So a subsidy on tariff for telcos is not likely in the near future,” an official said. Sources said that the demand for a floor price on tariff had been raised once again after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) recommendations on base price of 5G spectrum were released. The top executive decision making body of the DoT, the Digital Communications Commission, too has accepted the recommendations of the Trai.
“Multiple suggestions were floated. One was to provide some support from the USOF (universal service obligation fund) while other was to provide some subsidy to telcos whose ARPU (average revenue per user) has remained between $2-3 range for quite some time now,” an official said.
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