On Monday, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal made a passionate pitch for a hike in tariffs and a cut in government levies to save the industry. Mittal said while 35 per cent of the telecom industry’s revenue goes to the government in taxes and levies, the firms are loaded with an outstanding debt of adjusted gross income (AGR) dues and spectrum payments.
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“People are consuming an average of 16GB of data per user per month. It is time that tariffs do take a tick up to make the industry viable and, more importantly, have decent and appropriate returns on capital to grow into more technical areas, to roll out more networks, and become a more viable model of sustainability in the future,” Mittal said.
He said the industry needs to have the ‘right economic model’ and added that ‘for far too long, we have played in this game by growing this industry at a very minimal pricing level’. Levies are far too high in the telecom sector, Mittal said, adding that “levies and load on industry need to be brought down” for India to truly realize its digital vision.
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