As per the report in the Economic
Times dated 21-3-2012, the Commerce Ministry wrote a letter on 12-3-2012 to the
Secretary, Telecom Department stating that the proposal of the Telecom
Department in the draft of the National Telecom Policy 2011 for granting
preferential access to the domestic telecom equipment manufacturers is against
the WTO (World Trade Organisation) agreement to which India is a signatory.
The draft national telecom policy
fixed the target that by the year 2020,
80 per cent of the demand for telecom equipment should be met by the
domestic manufacturers with the value of
65 percent of the equipment added in India. The draft policy has made this
proposal for encouraging domestic manufacture of the telecom equipment. At
present, 90 percent of the demand for the telecom equipment in India is met by imports.
The draft national policy also held the view that encouraging the domestic
manufacture of equipment with the technology developed domestically in India is
necessary in the interest of national security. This proposal in the draft
national telecom policy is based on the recommendation of the TRAI.
But the Commerce Ministry raised the
objection to this proposal on the ground that as per thee WTO agreement signed
by India, such preferential treatment cannot be given to the domestic equipment
manufacturers and no condition should be imposed for procuring the equipment
from domestic manufacturers only. The telecom companies procuring thee
equipment for the expansion of their network should be left free to procure the
equipment from which ever vendor they prefer, whether Indian or foreign.
The European Union, USA and Japan
already raised objection to this proposal of the draft national telecom policy
for encopuragin domestic manufacture. Recently the US Assistant Tradee
Representative (South & Central Asia wrote a letter to the Telecom
Department against this preferential treatment to domestic manufacture.
But the point to be noted is that
even the draft national telecom policy says that the preferential treatment to
the domestic equipment manufacturers is subject to the international
commitments of India. So the international commitment is the WTO agreement
signed by India banning any preferential treatment to domestic manufacture and
the draft national policy commitment is to give preferential treatment to
domestic manufacture!
The only way to come out of this
problem is to nationalize the telecom services since the WTO agreement is not
against the procurement by Government companies from domestic manufacturers.
Otherwise India will remain a technologically dependent country in telecom
sector inspitee of the tremendous growth in the number of telecom subscribers,
with a permanent possibility of threat to its national security due to the
imported equipment.
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