The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will charge 8 per cent of gross revenue as licence fee from all telecom service providers across all categories and services from 2013-14.
Previously, DoT was planning to implement uniform licence fee regime from July 1, 2012.
Earlier in February 2012, The Minister for Communications and IT, Kapil Sibal, had announced a uniform licence fee of 8 per cent to be paid by the telecom operators. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had suggested that this fee be reduced to 6 per cent over a three-year period, enabling the struggling telecom industry to save about Rs 70 billion in taxes.
However, DoT decided to go ahead with Sibal’s recommendations of levying an 8 per cent uniform license fee on mobile operators having discovered that mobile operators had understated revenues and paid lower levies during 2006-07 and 2007-08.
