Telecom sector stress: IMG to meet next week to finalise report

Indian Telecom sector is one of the growing industry. It eases business by speeding up the communication and also contribute to the GDP by speeding up the communication. As this sector is in the financial stress, The inter-ministerial group constituted to suggest measures to ease financial stress will meet next week to discuss and finalize its report, according to a senior DoT official.

The high-level group will hold its next meeting on August 14 and August 16 to "discuss, finalize and sign" its report, said the official who did not wish to be named. The draft report is expected to be circulated among members tomorrow.Telecom sector is reeling  under massive debt and profitability issues, so for helping out the sector IMG with other proposals considering of giving more time to pay for the spectrum they bought

At present, a portion of spectrum auction amount is taken as upfront payment by Department of Telecom (DoT) and the rest after a two-year moratorium is paid out every year in 10 installments. Some other proposals being considered include shifting from PLR (over 13 per cent) to MCLR (8 per cent) for interest on deferred payments, and convergence between DoT guidelines and RBI guidelines on the issue of allowing spectrum as a collateral.

The IMG, earlier in June, had held extensive dialogue with all telecom players as well as large banks to discuss the industry's financial difficulties. Three Giant operators Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular United against Reliance Jio, have cited Rs 4.6 lakh crore of cumulative industry debt to demand raising of the call termination charges from the current 14 paise per minute as well as reduction in licence fee, spectrum usage charges and GST, besides relaxation in deferred payment norms for the spectrum acquired.