The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has approached the Telecom Commission to seek its approval to bring the telecom tower companies under the purview of the unified licensing regime. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has approached the Telecom Commission to seek its approval to bring the telecom tower companies under the purview of the unified licensing regime.
The proposal if approved by the Telecom Commission may lead to tower companies paying a licence fee of about 8 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) to the government. However, the move is being opposed by the infrastructure service providers as it would further burden the tower industry which is facing huge debt burden.
Currently, tower companies do not pay any license fee. They have to pay Rs 5,000 to the government for getting registered as infrastructure providers under category I (IP – I) to establish and maintain passive infrastructure.
In 2010, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had made recommendations to bring tower companies under licence regime on the grounds that the move would help in faster roll out of infrastructure services as the tower companies would not have to seek regulatory approvals from various local bodies. At the time, TRAI had stated that the move could get government additional revenue of Rs 20 billion.
Earlier, DoT had put the move on hold because it wanted to seek an exemption from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion on the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap of 74 per cent in the telecom sector. A few of the tower companies such as the American Tower Corporation are fully owned by international players. However, this issue has now been resolved with the government allowing 100 per cent FDI in the telecom sector. Therefore, DoT is now looking forward to bring tower industry under the purview of the unified licencing regime.
