No relief for telecom industry in Budget: TAIPA

Industry body TAIPA on Thursday said it is disappointed that the Union Budget did not outline any relief measures for the telecom sector which is facing financial stress.

Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) said the industry had been hoping for support from Budget on the alignment of DoT-issued Right of Way (RoW) Rules in every state, which has been pending for the last three to four years.

RoW Rules refer to norms for rolling out telecom infrastructure.

"Out of 37 States/UT's, only 16 states have broadly aligned their policy with RoW Rules 2016 and other remaining states still need to align their policy with Row Rules 2016," TAIPA said.

Stating that the telecom industry had played a key role in shaping India's economy, TAIPA Director-General T R Dua asked the government to come up with specific measures suitable for the telecom industry at a time when the sector is facing financial stress.

"Today, the telecom industry is not in a financially healthy situation and we urge the Government to come up with the best measures suitable for the telecom industry which has a lot of potential in terms of expansion and opportunities," Dua said.

On the issue of Right of Way, TAIPA said that policy anomaly in the states will deprive citizens from seamless network and internet connectivity and impede the rollout of new technologies.

"Representatives of TAIPA have been making enormous efforts for the implementation of the policy through joint meeting, submissions with various advisories and directions by Department of Telecom (DoT) but no action has been taken by the various State Governments in these many years," the association rued.