The Tower and Infrastructure Provider Association (TAIPA) has expressed its concerns over the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s (TRAI?s) recommendation to bring infrastructure firms into the ambit of unified licence.
The industry body representing telecom tower companies has demanded that infrastructure companies be kept out of the ambit of unified licence regime till the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) re-examines the matter thoroughly. The association has also stated that no policy decision should be ?forced upon? existing participants.
TRAI had recommended that the telecom infrastructure providers be brought under the net of unified licence, which would mean that the telecom infrastructure companies would pay eight per cent of revenue as annual licence fee.
TRAI in its recommendations estimates that bringing IP-1 under the unified licensing regime will fetch the government revenues to the tune of Rs 19 billion per year. However, TAIPA has dismissed the estimates made by the regulatory body as being completely unfounded and calculated without due application of mind and ignoring the ground realities.
The industry body argues that the tower industry is already struggling to recover its cost of capital after having invested over Rs 1 trillion. TAIPA further asserts that the recommendations would bring foreign direct investment in the sector from 100 per cent at present to 74 per cent, which is ?detrimental to the growth of the infrastructure and would hinder/discourage the investment in the sector.?
At present, infrastructure players (IP-1), are only required to register with DoT and do not have to pay a licence fee.
