Fixed line phone tariffs likely to come down

New Delhi, April 25

The Communication and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, on Friday announced that operators will be exempted from paying licence fee based on revenues earned from fixed line telephone service.

The move is expected to bring down fixed line telephone tariffs making them more competitive against mobile phones. Operators including Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications pay between 6 per cent and 10 per cent of their annual revenues from 39.4 million fixed line subscribers in the country to the Government.

The biggest gainer will be BSNL which has 31.5 million fixed line subscribers. The PSU will stand to gain Rs 1,200 crore a year once the licence fee is removed. MTNL and Bharti Airtel, with 3.6 million and 2.2 million fixed line users respectively, will gain about Rs 200 crore each.

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