Maharashtra govt committee to resolve long time pending telecom issues

Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA), an apex industry body representing Digital Infrastructure providers industry in India praised the order by the Government of Maharashtra in which the new committee has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Pr. Secretary, Urban Development Department which will submit its report within 15 days to the Govt. on the long time pending critical and urgent telecom operational issues.

Since the last 3-4 years DIPA has been raising the issues faced by the telecom infrastructure providers with the Govt. of Maharashtra that includes Implementation of Telecom Infrastructure Policy as issued by IT Dept, Maharashtra by all local bodies in true letter and spirit, Rationalization of Property Tax on telecom towers and regularization of towers existing prior to policy notified by State Govt in Feb 2018.

Taking cognizance of the submissions made by Mr.T.R.Dua, Director General, DIPA and the importance of robust communications infrastructure during natural disaster and pandemic to ensure that economy keeps on running, Chief Secretary had directed for constitution of special Committee under Urban Development dept to resolve the issues at the earliest.

The newly constituted committee will work towards resolving the challenges faced by the telecom infrastructure providers in Maharashtra include:

• Implementation of Telecom Infrastructure Policy as issued by IT Dept, Maharashtra by all local bodies in true letter and spirit.
• Rationalization of Property Tax on telecom towers – There is no uniformity in charging and levying property tax on telecom towers by different local authorities including Municipal Corporations, Municipalities, such as in Maharashtra, property tax in place like Mumbai, Pune, Nasik etc varies from 40% to 112% of Annual Rental value
• Regularization of towers existing prior to policy notified by State Govt in Feb 2018.

On the development, Tilak Raj Dua, Director General, DIPA said “We appreciate and thank the State Government of Maharashtra for constituting this new committee to resolve the long-time pending telecom operational issues in the state. We firmly believe that the new committee will have holistic view of the matters and the outcome will be in best interest of all stakeholders and boost the creation of robust digital infrastructure in the State.”

DIPA has been taking key initiatives to resolve these critical issues and have highlighted the same to Chief Secretary on number of occasions in past including in the State Broadband Committee meetings under chairmanship of Chief Secretary held on 1-Jun-2021 and recently on 12-Nov-2021. CT Bureau