Trai's plan to curb grey mkt not good for BSNL

Telecom regulator Trai's proposal to push termination charge up to Rs 3 a minute, on the plea to curb grey market activities, may give an undue advantage to private cellular operators of up to Rs 200 crore annually at the cost of state-owned BSNL.

According to sources, the access service providers (international long distance operators) and BSNL have strongly opposed the proposal to increase the termination charges from 30 paise at present to Rs 3 as they feel this will not be an effective way to curb the grey market.

"Instead of going to BSNL, the money will go to the private cellular operators," sources said.

Trai is understood to have proposed a "mixed approach" for new access deficit charge, a levy paid by private operators to BSNL for its rural operations. It suggests imposing up to 4% of gross revenue on all domestic calls and per-minute rate on incoming ISD calls.

But along with this, the operators may be allowed to negotiate on the termination charges with foreign ISD players.

Trai was yet to take a final view on the ADC, sources said, adding that Trai Chairman Pradip Baijal met DoT Secretary JS Sarma twice last week and sought the department's suggestions on the new ADC rates.

Trai would consider DoT's views before arriving at a final decision, the sources said.

Trai would be in a position to announce the new ADC regime in the next 2-3 weeks, they added. The new ADC regime would enable operators to offer new tariffs especially the much talked-about OneIndia.

There are some operators who feel that adopting a combination of both per-minute ADC, like on incoming ISD calls, and revenue based on all national mobile and STD calls would be the right approach but the regulator should not give advantage to cellular operators by allowing them to charge higher termination rates.

By and large, Trai has proposed to retain the quantum of BSNL at Rs 5,000 crore annually.