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Siddharth Zarabi & Sudipto Dey
New Delhi, April 18: A major review of the BJP government's telecom policy is on the cards as the possibility of a Congress-led political dispensation assuming power at the Centre has raised the hopes of a telecom industry reeling under Jagmohan's aggressive and tough stance towards errant private cellular and basic operators.
A pointer to this emerged on Friday during the Lok Sabha debate with Congress heavyweight Sharad Pawar criticising communications minister Jagmohan for making a mess of telecom sector privatisation.
At the heart of the matter lies the new telecom policy announced in March this year. Telecom chieftains, who welcomed the policy, are now uncertain over its future, especially as the issue of revenue sharing for existing operators is yet to be sorted out.
This situation arose as result of the new telecom policy failing to recommend a specific solution to problems of existing operators. The Union Cabinet decided to again refer the matter to Attorney General Soli Sorabjee. Consequently,a reference was made to the AG, but DoT's legendary resistance to revenue sharing structure held sway.
Sources said that as the reference made to the Attorney General was almost similar to the one made in December last year nothing much could have been expected this time around. Sorabjee's opinion that any concessions to operators should be conditional and should not send any signal or message that licensees can break licence conditions and remain in arrears had formed the corner stone of DoT's revenue recovery strategy.
A top industry chieftain said, "we were hoping for an early and final reply from the AG, based on which operators would firm up future plans and a new government at this stage will only prolong the agony of the operators."
Even though Jagmohan's tough stance against private telecom operators has riled companies no end, Saturday's developments have left the industry rattled. "Even though industry was dealt with in a very heavy-handed manner by communication minister Jagmohan on theissue of licence fees, the new telecom policy announced by the BJP government was a step in the right direction."
British Telecom managing director Arun Seth was optimistic that the new government would expedite the implementation of the telecom policy. "Governments over the years have shown commitment to building infrastructure and hopefully that will continue."
Telecom Industry and Service Association (Tisa) president PK Sandell was for referring the telecom policy to the new cabinet. Tisa will request the new Attorney General to refer the issue of the migration of the existing players, back to the Cabinet, he said.
Sandell feared that in its existing shape the implementation of the policy might get stalled by vested interests. "There are certain grey areas in the policy. However, these issues which could have been corrected through political intervention, may now be left to bureaucrats who may not take a fair decision," he said.
Operators are worried about the fate of the policy, even as they arepreparing a wish list for telecom. Vinay Rai chairman Usha Group and promoter of the Koshika cellular service said," the new government will have to move fast and announce measures for rolling over the high licence fee dues of companies."
In addition, Rai wants the government to immediately grant permission to telecom companies to raise capital through the external commercial borrowings. "This will not only help telecom companies to tide over the financial crunch, it will also provide a fillip to Indian telecom ventures," he added.
However, it is imminent that the latest reference to the AG will become infructous. Jairam Ramesh (Congress), secretary, economic affairs, has gone on record to say that the BJP government had made a mess out of telecom privatisation and reforms.
The delay in resolving the issue of existing operators may push back the overall implementation of the new telecom policy, said Motorola India executive director, BV Raman. He was of the view that the new government will do well bynot tinkering with the telecom policy as this will heighten uncertainty in the industry.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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