Government Policies

KEY POINTS

Core Issues plaguing Telecom sector

·         Financial crisis – The industry is going through a financial crisis as a result of which as many as five operators have shut shop.

·         Overall debt burden of the remaining players has burgeoned to alarming levels due to expensive spectrum auctions and huge reduction in cash flows.

·         Quality of services – Call drops, unwanted telemarketing calls, patchy data networks and unfair practices to get users pay more are rampant.

·         Grievance redressal – Consumers do not have access to a reliable and neutral complaint redressal mechanism.

·         Public sector companies in this sector continue to languish under high manpower costs and red tape.

·         There is a big worry over the huge imports of telecom equipment and devices at a time when India’s trade deficit is ballooning.

National Digital Communication Policy (NDCP)

·         The Union Cabinet has recently approved the National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018.

·         The new policy acknowledges the above problems, but almost all the solutions offered find mention in earlier regulations and vision statements.

·         Some of the major targets listed in the 2012 policy are still to be achieved.

·         Instead of delving into why these targets were missed and how things can be improved, the National Digital Communications Policy 2018 lists out more and new targets.

·         For instance, on the issue of reducing financial burden on the telecom operators, the policy merely restates that the plan is to rationalise government taxes and levies, apart from giving critical infrastructure status to the industry.

·         The reality is that these proposals have been pushed by the Department of Telecom for several years only to be blocked by the Finance Ministry, which has so far seen the sector only as a non-tax revenue generator for the exchequer.