The US telecommunications industry has asked the Indian government to reevaluate its policies with regard to capitalisation requirements and application fees for telecom licences.
In a memorandum to the US Trade Representative, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has said, “TIA urges India to reevaluate the basis for license application fees, capitalisation requirements and bank guarantees as it applies to telecommunications service provider licences.?
TIA added that as a general rule, application fees should reflect the cost of processing an application. “While bank guarantees are appropriate in limited cases, such requirements should reflect the scope of business intended to be offered and should be a temporary, not permanent requirement,” it said.
