BSNL moves telecom tribunal against TRAI's ADC cut

Our Corporate Bureau
02 April 2007

Mumbai: State-run BSNL has moved the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), challenging sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) decision to reduce the access deficit charge (ADC), a levy that BSNL charges  private operators for offsetting the cost of telecom services in rural areas.

TDSAT chairman Justice Arun Kumar, while taking up the petition, issued notice to TRAI and directed it to file reply.

The tribunal also asked mobile operators' associations, AUSPI and COAI, who wanted to be impleaded in the case, to file an application and also submit a list of their members.

Private telecom operators have been paying BSNL access deficit charges since 2003 to offset the cost incurred by the public sector firm in operations in rural operations.

TRAI had, on March 21, announced a 37 per cent reduction in ADC for 2007-08 bringing the total ADC receivables of BSNL down to Rs 2,000 crore from Rs 3,200 crore earlier. The new rates are effective from April 1.