Telecom services providers have urged the Ministry of Finance to suspend the universal service obligation (USOF) till the existing corpus is exhausted.
In their Budget recommendations, they have also pressed for an exemption from the service tax on assignment of right to use natural resources and the slashing of Customs duty on telecom equipment to zero.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (Coai), which represents private sector telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, called for abolishment of USOF levy.
Reliance Jio added 34.7 lakh mobile subscribers in September, cementing its lead in the competitive telecom market, while Airtel s wireless subscriber tally rose by 13.2 lakh, according to monthly data put out by Trai.
Vodafone Idea lost 7.5 lakh mobile subscribers during September, dragging its wireless user tally to 22.75 crore.
Reliance Jio gained 34.75 lakh wireless subscribers in September, and its user base climbed to 44.92 crore, as per data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Market concentration in the country s telecom sector continues to scale new heights despite government bailouts of public-sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), and private-sector Vodafone Idea.
The combined revenue (or net sales) share of the country s top two telecom operators - Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio - in the sector s total reached an all-time high of nearly 72 per cent in FY23 from 70.4 per cent in FY22 and around 60 per cent in FY20.
The net sales of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel India were Rs 1.67 trillion in FY23, up 18.6 per cent from the Rs 1.4 trillion a year earlier.
The number of mobile phone connections in India rose by 1.96 million in March, after reducing by 1.06 million in February, latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed.
The number of new connections have hit a 9-month high.
In these past 9-months, the total number of wireless (mobile phone) subscriptions had reduced on 5 occasions, the data shows.