TRAI recommendations will lead to eight-fold tariff hike: telecom chiefs

Telecom chiefs, in a meeting with telecom minister Kapil Sibal, have said that accepting the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations on 2G spectrum auction will raise tariff by as much as eight times.

The heads of telecom companies had met Sibal on the issue of the high base price fixed for the auction of 2G spectrum and other TRAI recommendations, in the second such meeting in a week.

The telecom chiefs claimed the sector regulator had not incorporated their recommendation on the auction of spectrum, adding that the spectrum size recommended by TRAI was inadequate.

The chiefs also pointed out that the regulator has ignored the government levies the telcos will have to pay, adding that this may increase costs by as much as 23%.

Bharti Airtel chief executive Sanjay Kapoor, Vodafone India chief executive Marten Pieters, Idea Cellular managing director Himanshu Kapadia, and FICCI chief Rajan Bharti Mittal were present for the meeting being held at Sibal’s residence.

The firms had on May 2 claimed that the implementation of the telecom regulator’s recommendations would lead to the doubling of mobile telephony charges and had promised to submit proof of that within six hours.

TRAI, on the other hand, claims that the base price it has sent would lead to only a marginal 1.5-2 paisa increase in telecom tariffs.