Finmin conservative in allocation under USO Fund: Telecom Secretary

The expenditure from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USO Fund) was around Rs 3,000 crore last fiscal

Around Rs 10,000 crore will be spent from the USO Fund in 2016-17 to speed up digital infrastructure projects even as the Finance Ministry remains conservative in allocations from it, Telecom Secretary J S Deepak said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a seminar here on 'ICT emerging technologies & USOF for Digital India' Deepak announced that Rs 10,000 crore will be spent in 2016-17, "which is the highest in the history of USOF".

An official statement also quoted him as saying that "the Finance Ministry is very conservative in allocation of funds under USOF" and "despite Rs 70,000 crore available under USOF, allocation of work is less than 40 per cent".

He admitted however that the execution of digital infrastructure projects particularly in rural areas needs to be speeded up.

"This year, the spending would be Rs 10,000 crore which would be utilised for expansion of Bharat Net project and improving connectivity in North East, and Andaman and Nicobar islands, as well as providing connectivity in areas affected by Left Wing extremism," Deepak said.

For USO, the total amount accrued so far is Rs 76,404 crore, of which Rs 31,147 crore has been disbursed. "The balance amount is pegged at Rs 45,256 crore," he said.

Department of Telecom has taken several measures for expansion of services in rural and remote areas, including chalking out a comprehensive telecom development plan for the North-East as well as setting up of mobile towers in the Left wing extremism affected states at an estimated Rs 3,567.50 crore.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha said that if India lags in keeping pace with emerging technologies in coming 15-20 years, the very existence of the country will be at stake.

The Minister emphasised the need for holistic planning rather than piecemeal approach to achieve the vision of Digital India.

Sinha expressed hope that by March 2017, one lakh Gram Panchayats will be connected through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) to set up a network infrastructure to serve the rural masses.

TRAI Chairman, R S Sharma said that Public-Private Partnership (PPP) was the best mode for transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

He said when mobile telephony made its foray into India, there were two crore fixed telephone lines and pointed out that the number remains the same today even while mobile subscriber base has crossed 100 crore mark.

The Chairman has cautioned that the era of voice has been replaced by data and if India lags behind in building the digital highway in a time-bound manner, there could be problems.