On August 1, the Ministry of Communication stated in the parliament that the government is aware of the tariff rate that has recently been hiked by M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, M/s Bharti Airtel Ltd and M/s Vodafone Idea Ltd.
Congress MP asked, in an unstarred question, the Ministry over the tariff hike of 15 percent (average) by three leading mobile service providers with effect from July 3, 2024. Surjewala further asked the Ministry;
“Whether Government or Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have conducted any study on need of CAPEX or impact on profitability by purchase of spectrum through auction after taking into account previous set of concessions on AGR payable under Telecom Policy, 1999; and whether any steps have been taken by Government or TRAI to protect 109 crore consumers from this yearly cellphone charges – an increase of ₹34,824 crore – by telecom companies?”
In response, the Union Minister Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar provided the information in relation to the questions asked by Congress MP Surjewala.
Pemmasani said that “Yes, tariff has recently been hiked by M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, M/s Bharti Airtel Ltd and M/s Vodafone Idea Ltd and as per the extant regulatory tariff provisions, tariff for telecommunication service is under forbearance except for services such as National Roaming, Rural Fixed Line Services, USSD services, mobile number portability charges and leased circuits etc. It implies that the TSPs are fee to fix tariff for telecommunication services in a competitive market. However, as per the requirements of the Telecommunication Tariff Order (TTO), the TSPs are obligated to file their tariffs with TRAI within 7 working days of their launch in the market”
Union Minister also said that “these tariffs are then examined for their compliance with the regulatory principles which include inter alia, the principles of transparency, non-predation and non-discrimination. It may further be mentioned that the Indian telecom tariffs are amongst the lowest in the world and in India’s neighbourhood also.”
Recently, tariff rate by India’s leading telecommunication service provider companies like M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, M/s Bharti Airtel Ltd and M/s Vodafone Idea Ltd has been increased with effect from July 3, 2024.
The answer of Ministry can be read here:
Criticism by the opposition:
Senior Congress leader and MP Randeep Surjewala was also criticized the government over mobile phone tariff hike by 3 leading firms.
At a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Surjewala said “The Narendra Modi government is fleecing 109 crore cell phone users by sanctioning profiteering by private cell companies”.
Surjewala alleged that the cell phone market in India had been working as an ‘oligopoly’, with Reliance Jio having almost 48 crore cell phone users, Airtel having 39 crore cell phone users, and Vodafone Idea having about 22.37 crore cell phone users. He further said that “Effective July 3, the three private cell phone companies, i.e. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have increased their tariffs by an average of 15 per cent. The three private cell phone companies have a market share of 91.6 per cent, or 109 crore cell phone users out of a total of 119 crore cell phone users as on December 31, 2023.”
At the conference, Surjewala also cited the TRAI report to highlight that a total additional yearly payment from the pockets of the common man and woman of India seeking connectivity after increase in tariffs will be around Rs 34,824 crore per year. This data was for the 109 crore cell phone users of these three private cell phone companies.
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