Jyotiraditya Scindia promises timeline-based action plan for Telecom sector

The government has identified the agenda and pain points for the telecom sector after discussions with top executives of India's mobile phone operators and will devise an action plan with timelines to take the industry forward, communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday.

The minister was addressing the media after holding meetings over the past two days with the telecom department's six advisory committees consisting of industry stakeholders.

"We have identified a rather deep agenda for all committees. Now, we will be working together with the members of these committees," Scindia said.


The meeting with the panel of telecom operators was attended by Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal and its India chief executive officer Gopal Vittal, Reliance Jio chairman Akash Ambani and managing director (MD) Pankaj Pawar and Vodafone Idea MD Akshaya Moondra, among others. Telecom industry body Cellular Operators Association of India director-general SP Kochhar was also part of the meeting.

"It was a very good meeting," Ambani told ET. Asked if the industry had put forward any wish list to the government, he said: "Nothing specific; we are looking forward to the leadership of the honourable minister."

India's top mobile carriers have been seeking a waiver of customs duty on 4G and 5G network equipment, besides a cut in the licence fee to 1% of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) - from the present 3% - and tax sops like carrying forward and setting off business losses for 16 assessment years instead of eight years now. They have also been pushing for a suspension of the 5% of AGR contribution towards the Universal Service Obligation Fund till the fund's ₹79,638.31 crore corpus is used up.

Scindia said there are varied schedules for the first presentation of these committees over the next couple of weeks, after which individual issues will be discussed.

"...we would be taking one individual issue at a time, delving into the details and devising an action plan with clear timelines and actional items so that we can take our sector forward," the minister said, without divulging specific issues.

"By forging these committees, we hope to take the sector forward... (creating) a telecom superpower within India that will hopefully transcend our boundaries in days to come," Scindia said.