Trai for uniform licence fee of 6% by 2014

Telecom regulator Trai today proposed that the licence fee paid by operators should be reduced in the next four years to an uniform 6 per cent of adjusted gross revenue from the current 6-10 per cent.

Releasing its 2G spectrum allocation and pricing recommendations, the regulator said currently, telcos are charged a licence fee of 10 per cent in the metros and A circles, 8 per cent in B circles and 6 per cent in C circles.

This licence fee should be brought down progressively from the existing rates to an uniform rate of 6 per cent by the year 2013-14, said Trai Chairman J S Sarma in a news conference.

Rajan Mathew, the DG of GSM operators' association COAI, said this is a positive development, as it would bring down operators' costs. This has been a long-standing demand of the operators, who said the total levies of the telecom sector in India were the highest in the world, at 30 per cent.

Operators pay licence fees as a revenue share of their adjusted gross revenue.