TRAI okays limited mobility for basic operators
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in a landmark decision has allowed fixed telephone operators to offer limited mobility at the rate of Rs 1.20 for a three-minute call and, in a balancing effort, permitted cellular service providers to offer fixed phones on their GSM networks.

Trai has also fulfilled the long-standing demand of mobile operators to fix the revenue share at 12 per cent of their annual revenues — putting them on par with basic operators (BSOs) in metros and category A circles.

No separate entry or licence fee has been proposed for fixed-line operators. Basic licences will cover mobile services based on the code division multiple access (CDMA) WiLL technology. The rental charge will be fixed in three months after taking into account the cost of last-mile WiLL connections. Trai has also suggested that uniform standards under the national plan should be followed in the allotment and pricing of frequency spectrum for cellular companies and basic operators, including those, which provide WiLL-based limited mobility.
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CMIE pegs GDP growth estimate at 5.8%
Mumbai: Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said that the Indian economy is estimated to grow by 5.8 per cent during 2000-01. Growth rate has already started decelerating during the first half of the year, to 5.9 per cent from 6.3 per cent, in the first-half of the previous year, while the remaining two quarters do not hold any promise of accelerating this growth rate..

The premier economic monitoring agency said that industrial output is projected to grow by 5.5 per cent, a sharp deceleration from 8.1 per cent growth recorded in 1999-00. During April-October, the IIP growth had already slowed down to 5.8 per cent compared to 6.6 per cent in the corresponding period of 1999. The rise in interest rates in July and the hike in prices of petroleum products has added to the process of the slowdown, it said.
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Basic customs duty may be pruned in the budget
New Delhi: The finance ministry is considering reducing the basic customs duty from 25 per cent to 20 per cent in the next general budget, on the recommendation of the advisory group on tax policy headed by fiscal expert Mr.Parthasarthy Shome.

The advisory group had suggested that a countervailing duty (CVD) of 16 per cent be levied uniformly so that the question of refunding the terminal excise duty, which is associated with the CVD, is eliminated. The panel is also in favour of removing exemptions from the four per cent special additional duty (SAD).

On central excise, the group has recommended a two-rate structure of 16 per cent together with a higher rate. An increasing number of items are to be converged to fall under the 16 per cent rate to minimise classification problems. This would be economically desirable and administratively simple. The rates would have to be adjusted for inclusion of services in the Cenvat.

These tax reform recommendations were made in an interim report to help the finance ministry in finalising its taxation proposals.
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