Advertisement
Subscribe
X

Connect with us

Recommendation Chaos

The din aside, TRAI's suggestions differ little from those of DoT

Outlook Web Desk

Updated on:

It was like the calm before the storm. Right from September 9, when trai issued its first set of proposals on telephone tariffs, everyone seemed to nod their heads in agreement. That was till the final tariff order was presented in Parliament on March 9. That's when two main objections cropped up. First, it became a political issue when MPs opposed the new rates as anti-poor. This was followed by opposition from DoT which said that its revenue stream would be hit by the tariffs, impacting its ability to raise teledensity in the country.

All this has caught trai by surprise. Says a senior official of the regulatory authority: 'We recognise that it is DoT which will increase teledensity, and the new tariffs acknowledge its need for supernormal profits.' In fact, what trai has recommended presently is not very different from what DoT itself had suggested. Consider:

  • DoT had agreed to charge Rs 1.30 per three minute metered call. trai's recommendation is that the first 1,000 bi-monthly metered calls be charged at Re 0.80 for rural subscribers and Re 1.00 for urban subscribers. Other calls will be charged at Rs 1.20 per three minute metered call.
  • DoT had suggested an increase of 25 to 35 per cent in rentals. trai has increased rentals by 20 to 40 per cent.
  • DoT had suggested a 15 to 20 per cent reduction in isd/std charges. trai has reduced these charges by an average of 23 per cent.
  • For long-distance calls, DoT had suggested an additional slab of 1,000 km and above at a pulse rate of three seconds. trai has retained this distance slab.

    In some cases, though, trai differed with DoT, and with good reason. For instance, DoT felt that it needed to spend Rs 45,000 for every new telephone line. But according to its own data, it spends only Rs 32,800 per line.

    • And the reduction in std call rates does not merely benefit the rich. That's because DoT derives 30 per cent of its std revenue from village telephones and public call booths. So why the opposition from Mamata Banerjee and her ilk?

    Show comments

    Tags

    US