The Hindu : National : DoT flayed for tardy progress in expanding rural telephony

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Wednesday, Oct 29, 2008
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DoT flayed for tardy progress in expanding rural telephony

Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India has pulled up the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and the Administrator of Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund for tardy progress in increasing the rural tele-density and poor utilisation of funds.

During 2002-03 to 2006-07, only Rs.5,081.44 crore or 33.87 per cent of the USO Fund had been utilised out of Rs.14,998.98 crore collected from service providers, indicating that the DoT and the USO Fund Administrator failed to adopt aggressive strategies for expanding rural telephony,” the CAG report said.

The USO Fund was created in 2002 by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to provide telecom services to people in rural and remote areas at reasonable prices.

The CAG report tabled in Parliament said: “Despite phenomenal growth and expansion in the telecom sector in the country, the pace of expansion of services in rural India, particularly in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal has been very slow and the tele-density in these States ranged between 0.88 and 1.81 per cent per hundred population. This indicated that the objectives of establishing the USO Fund exclusively for accelerating the growth of rural telephony were not achieved despite substantial collection of funds through Universal Access Levy (UAL).”

The report also said the amounts collected through the UAL had not been credited fully to the USO Fund. The balance under the Fund at the end of each financial year was nil, indicating that the funds were diverted/used for purposes other than those fulfilling the USO.

A subsidy of Rs.1,850.77 crore was paid retrospectively towards rural household direct exchange lines (RDELs) installed during April 2002 to March 2005 without ensuring that the amount was disbursed only through eligible RDELs.

Liquidated damages of Rs.20.60 crore were not recovered from service providers for non-fulfilment of rollout obligations even in the extended period.

The excess payment of subsidy worth Rs.9.25 crore to service providers for village public telephones was not recovered.

“The USO Fund Administrator failed to monitor the quality of service parameters in rural areas. A large number of operations did not meet the minimum quality standard prescribed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India,” the CAG said.

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