Communications minister Sushma Swaraj is meeting finance minister Yashwant Sinha to discuss the non-payment of licence fees by cellular operators. The government will take a decision on the issue after the meeting, she said chat here yesterday in an informal chat with newsmen.
The non-payment of licence fees has emerged a sticky issue between the communications and finance ministries, after the latter pointed out that the department of telecommunications (DoT) was not keen on receiving the money since the funds would go into the Consolidated Fund and not to the department.
In reply to repeated questions on the delay in granting relief to the private operators, both basic and cellular, she said that she was not in favour of "piecemeal decisions". "We will take an integrated view on all matters pertaining to the private telecom operators."
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Listing her priorities, Swaraj said that the corporatisation of the DoT was among the most important issues. Regularisation of the deemed-deputation status of employees of MTNL, meeting expansion targets for village public telephones and financial relief to cellular operators were the other priorities.
The minister said she has held a number of meetings on the corporatisation proposal with top officials of the department.
Telecom secretary A V Gokak added that he expects the government to clear the DoT corporatisation proposal in a "couple of months". The proposal has been pending with the government for the last two years.
Corporatisation is being opposed by the Indian Telecom Services Association and some other departmental unions who argue that the step would retard DoT's growth and impede fulfillment of its social obligation of providing telephony in rural areas.
Swaraj, who also holds the I&B portfolio, denied that she would prefer to retain the communications portfolio. There has been speculation as to which of the BJP-led coalition ministers will hold the communications portfolio when an expansion of the cabinet takes place.