Lower RoC forcing for tariff hike

Barcelona: Bharti Airtel is looking to raise mobile phone call and data rates across all plans this year, telecom firm's Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said here. The company last month increased the price of its minimum recharge or the entry-level for the 28-day mobile phone service plan by about 57 per cent to Rs155 in eight circles. Responding to a PTI query on the need for a tariff hike when the company's balance sheet is healthy, he said the return on capital in the telecom business is very low and a tariff hike is expected this year.

"It (tariff hike) will happen across the board," Mittal said at Mobile World Congress (MWC) here on Monday. He said the company has injected a lot of capital that has made the balance sheet strong, but the return on capital (RoC) in the industry is very low.

"That needs to change. We are talking of small increments that need to come in the Indian tariff situation. I hope it happens this year," Mittal said. Asked about the impact of price increase on people at the bottom of the pyramid, he said the hike is low compared to the spending people are making on other things.

"Salaries have gone up, rents have gone up except one thing. There is no one complaining. People are consuming 30 GB for almost paying nothing. We don't have more Vodafone (Idea) type of scenarios in the country. We need a robust telecom company in the country."