A committee under the Department of telecommunications has recommended rebate in licence fees for operators that use renewable energy solutions for powering their telecom towers.

The committee has proposed rebates of 1 per cent, 2 per cent and 3 per cent for mobile operators who run 20 per cent, 35 per cent and 50 per cent of their towers on green energy respectively. The recommendation is among a slew of incentives that the government is considering to encourage telecom operators and tower firms to meet DoT's green energy targets. 

The committee has been mulling performance-based incentives to telecom companies that deploy renewable energy solutions in running their towers, and in turn, reduce diesel consumption. This is important as the telecom department had mandated that all tower installations built post-2013-14 must ensure that the back-up energy source to grid power is based on renewable energy solutions and not diesel.

A graded licence fee rebate mechanism has been suggested to help cross-subsidise telecom investments since the initial cost of adoption of green energy is high. The committee has also advocated uninterrupted power consumer status for operators to avail of the benefits of uniform preferential tariffs, especially since the telecom industry is a critical infrastructure sector contributing to economic growth.