DoT's committee to submit report on licensing reforms

New Delhi: The telecom department is moving ahead in full stream towards ushering the next round of reforms in the sector and a committee, set up to make suggestions on licencing reforms, is expected to submit its report to the Department by the month-end, a senior official said. Even as hectic preparations are on in the Department of Telecom (DoT) for the upcoming spectrum auctions, work on the second set of reforms is going on in parallel. Some of these reforms may be announced by the July-August timeframe.

The reforms span multiple areas including licencing, wireless WPC, satellite telephony, and other areas. A DoT committee headed by Member Technology is deliberating on the licencing terms and conditions reforms, and is expected to submit its report by the month end, following which Department of Telecom will assess which measures involve reference to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and those which can be taken forward by the Department directly, the official said.

The panel, which has been formed, is looking at various aspects of licence reforms including licencing terms and conditions, to make things simpler and easier for the licensee. The idea overall is to ensure a simpler regime with ease of doing business, lower compliance burden, as also reduction of certain unnecessary charges, and delayering of costs, said the official privy to the developments. The second area is WPC (Wireless Planning and Coordination) reforms, which is again a procedural reform, aimed at making things simpler, cutting down the number of processes, removing some unnecessary fees, eliminating some approvals which are required.