Review various levies on telecom sector to fuel growth, says Trai

The regulator said since the present framework for calculating these levies was devised two decades back, it may be appropriate to review the concept of gross revenue and its underlining elements

To address the challenges faced by the telecom sector and fuel growth, changes are required in the licencing framework and calculation for various levies need to be reviewed, sectoral regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said.

Trai in its inputs on the National Telecom Policy 2018 (NTP) said in addition to reviewing the license fee and spectrum usage charges (SUC) structure, there is a need to review the rates of such levies, keeping in view the fact that spectrum is now being assigned through auction process, and telecommunication networks have become the underlying infrastructure for growth in digital economy.