The department of telecommunications (DoT) has assured the telecom industry that it will soon review and decide on the issues concerning the sector like SIM activations, movement of essential goods additional backhaul spectrum, additional relaxation in filing compliance requirements due to the extension of the quarantine period, etc. In a meeting between the DoT secretary Anshu Prakash, senior members of the computer science and engineering, director general, COAI, on Monday, all the issues were discussed.
Mathews said the COAI raised the need for the government to address the distressed financial plight of the industry on an expedited basis. It has asked for a reduction in the licence fee (LF) and spectrum usage charges (SUC) as well as modifications in the GST where spectrum debt payments, LF and SUC payments would not be classified as “services”, and hence not attract GST. The DoT secretary referred the matter to member finance for his follow-up.
The COAI had recently approached ministry of finance with key asks, including providing soft loan against GST input credit to address the immediate liquidity crunch, reducing the SUC to 3% and reducing LF (USOF contribution) from 8% to 3%. The industry has also urged to exempt the levy of GST on LF, SUC and payment of spectrum acquired in auctions.
The industry has written several letters to DoT recently to address issues of telcos in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has sought DoT’s help in relaxing norms regarding activation of SIM cards, compliance approvals, etc
Mathews said the COAI raised the need for the government to address the distressed financial plight of the industry on an expedited basis. It has asked for a reduction in the licence fee (LF) and spectrum usage charges (SUC) as well as modifications in the GST where spectrum debt payments, LF and SUC payments would not be classified as “services”, and hence not attract GST. The DoT secretary referred the matter to member finance for his follow-up.
The COAI had recently approached ministry of finance with key asks, including providing soft loan against GST input credit to address the immediate liquidity crunch, reducing the SUC to 3% and reducing LF (USOF contribution) from 8% to 3%. The industry has also urged to exempt the levy of GST on LF, SUC and payment of spectrum acquired in auctions.
The industry has written several letters to DoT recently to address issues of telcos in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has sought DoT’s help in relaxing norms regarding activation of SIM cards, compliance approvals, etc
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