Mittal rues high levies in telecom industry
NEW DELHI: Telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal on Thursday said consolidation in Indian telecom sector has come about at “significant pain” of nearly $50 billion of investment write-off and job losses, and went on to flag high taxes that the sector faces.
Speaking at the inaugural session of India Mobile Congress 2018, Sunil Mittal who is the chairman of telecom major Bharti Airtel, rued that the telecom sector remains highly taxed just like the tobacco industry, when it is contributing to India’s digital aspirations.
“In India, for every ₹190 that mobile operators earn, nearly ₹37 goes towards one form of levy or the other. I cannot see how this contradiction can exist...where on one hand we have Prime Minister’s vision of digitally enabled India ...which requires tremendous amount of investment, on the other hand we keep the spectrum prices and our licence fee very high...and of course the goods and services taxt is at 18% which almost at the highest tax bracket,” Mittal said.
This needs to be resolved, Mittal said, adding he is happy that the National Digital Communica- tions Policy (NDCP) captures the outstanding issues like doing away of dual taxation, accelerating Merger and acquisition process, and reducing litigation in the sector. He also said the industry has now reached the “right structure” but noted that the consolidation of the Indian telecom market did not take place in an orderly manner except in case of Vodafone Idea merger.
Bharti Airtel Ltd posted a 65.4% fall in quarterly profit on Thursday.
Bharti Airtel posted a profit of ₹119 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared with a profit of ₹343 crore a year ago.
Revenue fell about 6.2% to ₹20,423 crore, the New Delhibased company said.
Its domestic average revenue per user (ARPU) during the quarter fell 28.8% to 101 rupees.