BSNL pegs its ADC requirement to Rs 14,300 crore

New Delhi: State-owned telecom services provider BSNL has opposed telecom regulator TRAI's decision to cut the access deficit charge it charges private telecom service providers.

On the contrary, it had sought an almost five-fold jump to Rs 14,300 crore a year in the levy paid by private operators as access deficit charge. The proceeds go to fund rural telephony operations.

BSNL, which has taken TRAI to the telecom tribunal TDSAT over the issue of the cut in accesss deficit charge told TRAI that the total ADC per year to offset its deficits on account of running below-cost rural services is about Rs 14,300 crore.

BSNL, which expects to recover around Rs 3,200 crore in 2006-07 as ADC, will see it fall to Rs 1,600 in 2007-08 after TRAI announced a reduction in the levy in April last year.

BSNL said that as per the calculation of ADC on the methodology prescribed by TRAI, the gross rental deficit for 'all direct exchange lines' (DELS) is Rs 12,089 crore. The calculation is based on total DELS at Rs 3.51 crore.

The average rental cost per DEL is Rs 425 per month and its recovery is Rs 138, leaving a rental deficit of Rs 287, which BSNL says grosses to Rs 12,089 crore. If the deficit for free or subsidised calls is calculated, the total ADC would exceed this amount.

According to BSNL's reckoning, the access deficit on rural DELS would amount to Rs 8,771 crore, based on the calculation of 1.28 crore rural DELS with a deficit per rural DEL of Rs 571 per month.

The telecom major has contended that the ADC arising out of free calls was about Rs 2,074 crore while from subsidised calls it amounted to Rs 3,456 crore, arriving at Rs 14,301 crore per year.