Tata Tele flays 'lack of clarity on FDI'

PUNE: Tata Tele Services (TTSL) has blamed the lack of clarity on foreign direct investment (FDI) in telecom for its inability to enter Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and North East telecom circles. Mukund Govind Rajan, director, TTSL, said that the company had applied for a licence to extend the services for these three circles three months ago, but still has not got it.

“The government has taken a three-month extension to clarify issues related to Press Note 5. This is the third time when the government has taken an extension after we have applied for the licence,” said Mr Rajan.

The department of telecom (DoT) had earlier moved a proposal to relax some of the norms specified in the Press Note 5 in such a way that the guidelines would not be applicable to companies with less than 49% FDI. But Mr Rajan argues that FDI limitations are being imposed on TTSL in spite of being under 49% limit.

“We are under 49% limit and we have no plans to modify this limit. Still I do not understand why FDI limitations are being imposed on us,” said Mr Rajan.

Despite the edge over the GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) players, the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) players are not happy over the allocation of 3G spectrum.

Mr Rajan, who is also the president of the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI), the representative body for CDMA operators, said that they are not happy with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) recommendations.

“We have been asking for 1900 MHz band, but that has not been allotted to us and there is no growth in 450 MHz which has been given to us,” said Mr Rajan.

He also added that the taxes and levies imposed by the telecom sector in India are highest in the world which are between 19 to 28% of the revenues.

“Other emerging telecom markets such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and China have very low taxes. We want taxes between 0 to 12% of the revenues,” said Mr Rajan.