Gokak Advocates Dot Overhaul

Telecom secretary A V Gokak yesterday made a strong case for the corporatisation and total restructuring of the department of telecommunications (DoT).

I would personally like to oversee the liquidation of DoT in its present form, he said while stressing the need for the removal of constraints to the departments operations.

There are limitations... DoT will not be able to deliver (results) as things stand. There are issues like tariffs, expenses and a monopoly-culture that has set in to be dealt with, the secretary said referring to the hurdles before DoTs expansion plans. Only competition will change matters, he felt.

 

Gokak was chairing a round-table conference on Telecommunication Reforms: Problems, Issues and Suggestions organised by the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) here yesterday. He told participants that DoT was aware of the problems of the Indian Telephone Industries and plans to approach the Union government with suggestions for its revival.

P S Saran, member (services) of the telecom commission the apex seven-member body of DoT outlined the ninth five-year plan projections for the department at the conference. DoT plans to set up 24-25 million direct exchange lines (DELs) in addition to some 6-7 million DELs that the private sector is expected to put up. Thirty to 35 million lines should come up in the next five-year plan, he added.

At a session on telecom manufacturing in the country, K P P Nambiar, managing director of Bangalore-based Namtech Ltd, called for differential import tariffs on electronic raw materials, components and finished products. He felt unless this was implemented immediately, domestic industry would suffer.

Public Enterprises Selection Board chairman Nagarajan Vittal felt that the DoTs current policy of multiple-vendor tendering should be done away with. The policy to award 30 per cent of a tender to the lowest price bidder and the rest being shared among others should be done away with, he said.

Such a system precludes the possibility of sizeable orders being awarded to any one vendor and drives away investments by multinational companies. DoTs tender policy, he felt, was the biggest impediment to domestic manufacturing in telecom.