Maran sees 200 million phones by 2007

Setting a target of 200 million telephones by 2007, the Telecommunications and Information Technology minister Dayanidhi Maran said that this would mean investing Rs 1 to1.25 lakh crore on telecom equipment.

"We should work towards increasing the number of phones from the present 85 million to at least 200 million telephones by 2007, which would require 120 million lines in the next three years," Maran said at a roundtable conference on development of telecom equipment manufacturing here.

The minister stressed on promotion of indigenous manufacturing. Manufacturing Rs 1 to1.25 lakh crore worth of equipment domestically would be more beneficial than importing it.

Asking the service providers to assist in encouraging domestic production, he said, "Service providers should confine themselves to importing only those items that cannot be manufactured in the country".

Maran assured that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was all set to provide an impetus to the development of telecom equipment manufacturing to meet demand arising from strong growth in telecom services.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, however, said that indigenous manufacturers needed to have a level playing field vis-a-vis imports and assured that the commission would work to provide the requisite support in this direction.

Maran said in view of the zero duty structure under World Trade Organisation (WTO) obligations, coming into effect from January 2005, DoT has already approached the finance ministry on the problems the indigenous manufacturing sector would face.

Among the recommendations presented by the industry, mechanism to exempt taxes and levies on inputs or raw material and components was high on the agenda. Tax holiday for at least 10 years, simplification in customs clearance, labour laws, bringing IT and telecom at par with Special Economic Zones, were among the others issues.

Speaking on the occasion, DoT secretary, Nripenndra Misra said that despite major policy initiatives like abolition of licence regime, the growth rate in the sector was static.

He said that treating existing operators as captive markets resulted local manufacturers ignore the Research and Development aspect and the Indiann manufacturers failed to plan for the telecom boom in emerging economies.

"It is necessary to explore the nature of support from both governmentn and private operators, to provide access to domestic markets," Misra said.