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Government awaiting GoT report, says Jagmohan

The government is awaiting the report of the special Group on Telecom for deciding the cellular telephone licence fee issue, Communications Minister Jagmohan told the Lok Sabha today.

Replying to a starred question by Pramothes Mukherjee, the minister said the next meeting of the special group that is headed by the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jaswant Singh has been fixed for December 15.

He hoped it would submit its recommendation in the next two weeks.

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Jagmohan admitted that the cellular phone operators are not paying the agreed licence fee to the exchequer on the plea that they are incurring heavy losses. The arrears are running into thousands of millions of rupees. The operators want a two-year moratorium on the payment and are pressing for reduction in the fee.

When the member pointed out that the operators had already collected the money from the subscribers and were refusing to pay the dues to the government, the minister said he was keen to take a balanced view of the issue.

The minister said the special group is examining the plea of the operators along with the likely impact of their payment withholding on the budget balancing.

The government, he added, is keen on recovering the legitimate money due to the exchequer.

He agreed with Congress member Murli Deora that the licensing norms worked out by the previous government were defective and agreed to crosscheck the balance sheet of the cellular operating companies to ascertain whether they really incurred losses in the operations.

Jagmohan said the government has already secured a factual position report on the licence pricing mechanism from the Board of Industrial Costs and Prices.

Rural exchanges: In another reply, Jagmohan said that the government would prioritise remote and hilly areas for better phone technology.

The minister agreed to have a half-hour discussion on the performance of rural exchanges in other parts of the country after several members complained that their working was below expectations.

UNI

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