New Delhi, January 13 (IANS). The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Tuesday urged the government to reduce the telecom license fee from the current 3 per cent to 0.5 per cent or one per cent in the coming budget, so that the administrative expenses can be comfortably covered.
The key industry body of telecom operators also suggested that the GST rate on ‘reverse charge on spectrum’ payments, license fees, spectrum usage charges etc. could be reduced to 5 per cent from the current 18 per cent, as this would not impact the government’s income and would help in reducing the input tax credit (ITC) accumulation.
COAI Director General Lieutenant General Dr. S.P. “COAI is advocating for measures that will reduce the financial burden of the sector, thereby allowing further expansion and rollout of next generation connectivity to achieve the goal of a developed India,” Kochhar said.
Kochhar further said that the license fee, which is a mix of license (3 per cent of AGR) and Digital India Fund contribution (5 per cent of AGR), is a huge financial burden for licensed telecom companies.
“The contribution to the Digital India Fund should be stopped until the unutilized funds are fully utilized by the Department of Telecommunications,” he said.
COAI recommended that telecom operators be given special benefits in GST, including exemption in GST on LF, SUC and regulatory payments for spectrum awarded under auction.
Budget 2026-27 will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.
The budget for FY 2027 will be the ninth consecutive budget to be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. He CD Has already made the record of presenting the highest number of consecutive budgets after Deshmukh (7 budgets). If she also presents the budget for FY 2028, she will equal the record of late Morarji Desai, who presented a total of 10 budgets in two terms – six between 1959 to 1964 and four between 1967 to 1969.
–IANS
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