Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has announced a 37 per cent cut in Access Deficit Charge(ADC) or the fee paid by private operators to state-run BSNL for carrying out social obligations, like providing services in rural areas. “The total amount of levy (ADC) for the financial year 2007-08 is reduced to approximately Rs 2,000 crore from existing level of Rs 3,200 crore,” said the regulator in a statement.As a result of this, outgoing ISD calls are likely to become cheaper as the per minute ADC on them has been reduced to zero from the existing level of 80 paise per minute. The levy on incoming ISD calls has also been brought down by 38 per cent to Re 1 from the existing Rs 1.60 per minute.“The removal of the ADC on the Outgoing International Long Distance calls should allow us to revisit the tariffs for the service. The benefits of this reduction will be passed on to the customer,” said Manoj Kohli, president, Bharti Airtel.Cell operators disappointedNEW DELHI: The decision to cut ADC that will come into effect from April 1, has met with sharp criticism from industry associations. “We are disappointed, we had expected the ADC to come down to Rs 1600 crore,” said Cellular Operators of India director general T V Ramachandran. Ramachandran added that the continuation of an ADC subsidy to BSNL for fostering services in rural areas seemed anomalous in view of the fact that the PSU had bid a zero subsidy for the Universal Services Obligation (USO) fund tender. The USO fund is used to finance rural telephony projects.Reacting to this, Trai chairman Nripendra Mishra told the Indian Express that ADC was meant for meeting deficits that had already been incurred by BSNL in the past. The USO fund, he said, was for setting up network in rural areas in the future.
