The Planning Commission has suggested that the government pay 20 per cent of all mobile bills that are less than Rs 300 a month for customers in rural India by utilising the funds meant for providing subsidised telephony, say news reports.
The Planning Commission had sent this proposal to the Prime Minister’s Office, which in turn has asked the Department of Telecommunicatons (DoT) to examine the feasibility of the proposal. DoT has been asked to submit its response by 17 January, 2012.
The Commission has also suggested that all rural customers who purchase a mobile connection be given a one-time subsidy of Rs 250 from the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund.
Currently, all operators pay 5 per cent of their annual revenues to the USO Fund.
The Commission has said that the USO Fund has accumulated a large corpus over the years, which could be used for providing direct subsidy to rural users. Justifying the need for this subsidy, the Commission has said that rural telecom penetration was only 30 per cent, despite phenomenal expansion of mobile telephony.
Its letter also highlights that 30 per cent of customers? monthly bills go to the government in the form of various levies.
