In the currently prevailing regulatory uncertainties impacting the telecom sector, the industry would expect the Union Budget 2012 to take measures to promote the continuing growth in the sector.
Expectations from upcoming budget would include:
? Subsidies for expansion to rural areas: Given low rural teledensity and widening urban-rural penetration gap, government may consider subsidies as either directly or through Universal Services as an incentive to provision telecom services in rural areas;
? Streamlining subsidy provisioning for usage of renewable energy sources: This would be especially beneficial in rural areas where telecom connectivity is constrained due to long power outages and high running costs for telecom infrastructure;
? Re-investing a portion of proceeds from the upcoming auctions into the telecom sector growth especially in rural areas.
? Tax rebates for broadband services: This would lower cost to the end consumer and would help achieve government?s objective to increase broadband penetration manifold.
?Rationalization of taxes e.g. extension of 80IA benefits to 3G investments, streamlining of various local and national/state taxes.
