Taxes, levies in telecom sector high, need to be reviewed thoroughly: Sunil Mittal

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel on Friday suggested the government reduce taxes and levies on telecom sector to fuel overall economic growth.

"Taxes have generally been very high on this industry. It is important that this is reviewed thoroughly and telecom resources like spectrum, levies should not become a source for the exchequer, but should become a force multiplier in ensuring economic momentum becomes faster and gets accelerated. So, the government can earn its dues from other industries who are going to be riding on the back of this wonderful industry," Mittal said.

He was speaking at an event organised by industry body Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) and IMC Studio on the occasion of ''25th Anniversary of Mobile Telephony'' in India.

"PM''s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat is giving us all a clarion call to ensure more and more value addition is done in India for telecom networks, mobile devices, and software," he said.

Indian story of billion people connected on mobile network, of which nearly 600 million people are on broadband internet, is a story unparalleled anywhere in the world. Tariffs in the country are among the lowest in the world, Mittal said.

However, the telecom sector which saw the number of players surge from 2 to 12 over a period of time, is now back to having "3+1" operators, he said.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries. called for urgent policy measures to move away from 2G service, which started 25 years ago, and make it a "part of history".

Ambani said that 2G-era feature phones have kept around 30 crore subscribers away from basic internet services when both India and the world are venturing into 5G domain.

"I specifically refer to the fact that India still has 300 million mobile subscribers trapped in the 2G era, their feature phones keep them excluded even from the basic usage of the internet at a time when both India and the rest of the world are standing at the doorsteps of 5G telephony. I think necessary policy steps should be taken with utmost urgency to make 2G a part of history," Ambani said.