NEW DELHI, INDIA: The telecom industry is clearly at tenterhooks with the newly appointed IT minister looking at bringing down the mobile tariffs for local call rates to 10 paise a minute and STD call rates to 25 paise a minute. A.Raja feels that the decision taken by him in his previous tenure to bring in more mobile players can easily lead to lower tariffs. However, the telecom companies unanimously believe that such rates are not possible to achieve under the existing regulation.

BSNL came up with a new tariff plan of "India Golden Fifty" from March 1 in which it is providing local and STD calls at just 50 paise a minute across all networks. However, even BSNL believes that it is not possible to further bring down the tariffs as suggested by the Minister. "The reduction in tariffs to the extent of Rs 0.10 and Rs 0.25 per minute for local and STD calls is not viable for operators and presently there is forbearance in tariffs in the mobile segment and hence it may not be possible for Government to mandate such lower tariffs," says AK Jain, GM, BSNL.

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