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“I don’t appreciate this kind of statement. Very firmly and very clearly. We have given all the opening for doing business but no one should dictate terms on us. India is a sovereign country…,” said Prasad at the Times Network India Economic Conclave 2019 on Monday .
In November, Vodafone Group’s CEO Nick Read had highlighted the stress in the sector post Supreme Court’s verdict on AGR dues and said that the UK arm will not infuse any further equity and may eject without relief. He had later said he was misquoted. But in another event earlier this month, Vodafone Idea’s chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said that without sufficient relief, the telco will have to shut down .
The telecom minister assured on Monday that a monopoly was not on agenda and state-run BSNL and MTNL were important assets as well.
“We don’t countenance any monopoly nor we will. BSNL and MTNL are strategic assets…Therefore we owe it…For a fair competition a strategic PSU must remain in the field,” Prasad said .
The government so far has given a two year spectrum moratorium and will await the call of the top court on review petitions filed by players like VIL and Bharti Airtel on the AGR verdict. The apex court had in October widened the definition of AGR to include non-core items, leaving the two telcos facing dues of over Rs 89,000 crore which needs to be paid by January end.
“We have done our best for the private sector. They wanted two things which we have done namely- from 10 installment from spectrum charge we have extended to 16 and all the spectrum installment from 2021-22 and other two years have been now completely put on hold giving them a cool benefit of Rs 42,000 crores,” added Prasad.
The minister said PSUs who are impacted by AGR verdict have submitted a representation, which is being examined by the government.
In another session during the event, Piyush Goyal too commented on the telecom sector that is reeling under a debt of Rs 7 lakh crore and has stoked the fear of further shrinking from a three private player market to a two player only.
“Government also acquired stress. Railtel will have to shell out some 80 odd crores, BSNL has a stress, I am told GAIL has a big problem. These will have to be sorted out in consultation with the honourable supreme court. Government proactively or suo moto cannot take an action on this but I assure you we are in continuous dialogue,” said Goyal.
The telecom and IT minister also fielded questions on data privacy. “ The SC has held privacy to be a fundamental right but they have also stated that a terrorist or a corrupt person do not have any privacy,” said Prasad .
The government said it needs to maintain the balance between privacy and security where both are of paramount importance .
“I am trying to highlight is that the rights/privacy of individual is paramount and also of the government’s obligation to maintain safety, security and fair investigation,” he added .
The minister noted that data must be available for policymaker to frame the policy but that data must be anonymised data.
When asked about justice B N Srikrishna‘s comments that the data protection bill tabled in Parliament, that exempts its agencies from some or all provisions into an “Orwellian State”; Prasad defended saying he will discuss fine prints with one of the key drafters of the bill. “He will be able to understand that we have followed in principal what he had recommended,” said Prasad , but added “ freedom of speech is subject to reasonable restriction for the safety, security of India. The most pristine freedom is not unlimited”.
The telecom minister highlighted the controversy around global digital firms and their tussle with the government on data security and localisation .
“I don’t want to prejudice their case except to gently remind these global companies, India has the biggest global presence of Facebook, welcome, India has the biggest global presence of Whatsapp, welcome, Twitter etc. All welcome. India is a free democratic country, you all are welcome to do business in India but do it fairly in accordance with law,” he said.
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