National

Basic licence fee not refundable, says Maran

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10. The Centre has made it clear yet again that the entry fee paid for basic licences by telecom operators is non-refundable.

The clarification came from the Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, who, while speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of an award function organised here by the Electronic & Computer Software Export Promotion Council, said: "The licence agreement clearly states that the entry fee is not refundable."

This comes as a setback to the Bharti Group, which had approached the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal when its plea for a refund was turned down by the Department of Telecommunications. The private operator had paid Rs. 135 crores to the Government for basic telecom licences; it wanted a refund on migration to the Unified Access Services regime as the basic licences had become redundant. The Government has maintained that such migration was "voluntary" and did not involve refund of the basic licence entry fee.

Earlier, at the award function, Mr. Maran emphasised the need for a close Government-IT industry partnership to ensure competitiveness and increase access to foreign markets. The electronics and IT sectors, he said, had maintained sustained growth over the last few years. This was reflected in the electronics and computer software exports during 2003-04, which stood at $14.28 billion. Of this, software and services alone touched $12.60 billion. Latest studies revealed that the IT and IT-enabled services sector would be able to earn nearly $50 billion through exports by 2008.

Mr. Maran presented 26 awards for `Excellence in Exports' for 2002-03.

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