COAI seeks refund of unutilised ITC, levy cuts amid Covid stress

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SME Times News Bureau | 29 Jun, 2020
Telecom industry body COAI has again written to the Finance Minister seeking financial relief with refund of unutillised input tax credit (ITC) and rationalisation of regulatory levies as the industry goes through a tough time amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is the second time the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has written to the minister seeking relief measures for the industry in the past three months. In March it had written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking the relaxations.

It has requested immediate refund of the unutilised input tax credit. COAI also said that if not the refund, the government should provide soft loan at MCLR rate to the companies, using the GST input credit as collateral.

Seeking reduction in regulatory levies, it said: "The effective rate of the SUC should be reduced by 3 per cent for all the TSPs."

Licence fee contribution should be immediately brought down from 8 per cent to 3 per cent, said the letter signed by COAI Director General, Rajan Mathews.

The industry body has also sought exemption of the levy of GST on license fees, spectrum usage charges and payment of spectrum acquired in auctions.

"Exempt service tax on amount of LF/SUC payable by Telecom Operators in compliance with Supreme Court order," it added.