New Delhi: The Department of Telecom (DoT) has constituted committees to work on objectives set by National Digital Communications Policy, especially around concerns raised by service providers, a top government official said.
“We have constituted several committees. We need to enlarge some committees to bring inter-ministerial participation for views of Department of Finance, Department of Space and Department of IT. Most of the committees have been constituted, and now we will get down to work,” Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told PTI in an interview.
She was responding to a question on the action plan of DoT to achieve targets set by the government under National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018.
Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, at the India Mobile Congress (IMC), had said that the telecom sector remains highly taxed just like the tobacco industry.
“In India, for every Rs 100 that mobile operators earn, nearly Rs 37 goes towards one form of levy or the other. I cannot see how this contradiction can exist, where on one hand we have PM’s vision of digitally enabled India which requires tremendous amount of investment, and on the other hand we keep the spectrum prices and our licence fee is very high. And of course the GST is at 18 per cent which almost at the highest tax bracket,” Mittal stated.
The telecom secretary said that most of the issues were expected to be resolved in a year, and for some work will have to go on till 2022 as per the target date set under NDCP.