Trai suggests sops to boost local telecom gear manufacturing
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended that the applicable gross revenue of telecom operators be reduced against the indigenous networking and telecommunications equipment (NATE) volumes procured in their respective networks.
In the list of recommendations on ‘Promoting Networking and Telecom Equipment Manufacturing in India’ released by the sector regulator on Saturday, it has also suggested the introduction of local value addition norms in performance linked incentives scheme (PLI scheme), tax relief as part of fiscal incentives, and setting up a dedicated master fund towards to address the relative cost disability faced by the industry, among others.
“It has been recommended that Government should follow a nudge approach and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) should be incentivised to deploy indigenously manufactured equipment by reducing their Applicable Gross Revenues on annual net basis, by an amount equivalent to the aggregate certified value of indigenous NATE deployed in respective telecom networks during a financial year,” Trai said.
It has recommended the establishment of a dedicated master fund – the NATEDF — Networking and Telecommunications Equipment Development fund along the lines of the Electronics Development Fund (EDF).
This fund should provide for venture capital funding in public-private partnership mode to start-ups in need of accelerator support. “For the same, at least 15% of NATEDF's total pool of Rs 10,000 crores should be earmarked as Committed Public fund for Daughter fund(s) for innovation practice,” Trai said.
Trai also said that telecom software should be recognised as a separate category, and suggested setting up a dedicated fund, Telecom Software Development Fund.
