Tata Tele wants ADC to go

Tata Teleservices has sought the removal of Access Deficit Charge, levied on private telecom operators to fund state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's rural telephony, saying it was non-transparent and economically inefficient.

The Department of Telecom is expected to take a final view on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's proposals on shifting to a revenue-based Access Deficit Charge regime.

"There has been a dramatic over-collection of the ADC in the current year and this has to be immediately reversed and adjusted against the next year's collection," said Mukund Govind Rajan, director,Tata Teleservices today.

"India may be the only country where private players who are yet to make profits are subsidising the operations of a state-owned company, which was tremendously profitable," he said.

Company executives said Tata Teleservices was hoping to break even later in the year and book cash profit in two years.

Replying to a question on the company off-loading stake to either a strategic or financial investor, Mukund said, "We have had talks with investors, but no decision has been taken. However, the company will continue to be managed by the Tatas."

Tata Teleservices offers both mobile and fixed-line services based on the CDMA platform in 20 of the 23 telecom circles in the country and has a subscriber base of a little over four million.