Political conflict over mobile recharge intensifies, government hits back at Congress, says price is lowest in India

Mobile recharge becomes expensive

Hike in mobile recharge prices, A round of allegations and counter-allegations has started between the Congress and the government over the mobile tariff hike by telecom companies. When the Congress attacked the government over the tariff hike, the government also retaliated. The government said on Friday that India’s mobile service market is driven by demand and supply, which includes three private telecom companies and one public sector company and these companies offer the lowest tariff rates to customers globally.

termed the claims as misleading

The government has rejected misleading claims about the recent increase in mobile tariff rates. This statement of the Union Communications Ministry came after the Congress criticized the government over the mobile tariff hike announced by three major companies. The Congress had questioned how telecom companies could be allowed to increase rates unilaterally without any monitoring and regulation.

Congress targets the center

Congress on Friday targeted the central government after the three major telecom companies increased tariff rates and taunted that this is the offering of crony capitalism to the public by the third term of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Recently, three major telecom companies Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea announced tariff hike after a gap of two and a half years. The largest company Reliance Jio was the first to take this step.

Ministry rejected the claims

Rejecting the Congress’ claims, the ministry in its statement argued that the rates of mobile services have been regulated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for the past two decades. The ministry said that as a result of the policies of the government and the regulatory framework notified by the regulator, the cost of mobile services in India has become the lowest for consumers.

The Congress question

Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala questioned why the Modi government allowed the recovery of Rs 34,824 crore from the pockets of 109 crore cell phone users? He said that 109 crore cell phone users of the country use cell phones of Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone. The Modi government has put a burden of Rs 34,824 crore annually on these 109 crore cell phone users.

Jio, Airtel and Vodafone plans became expensive

The country’s private cell phone companies, i.e. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have together increased their tariffs by an average of 15 percent. Their market share is 91.6 percent, i.e. out of a total of 119 crore cell phone users, 109 crore cell phone users use only Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone plans.