Calcutta, May 7: In a bid to wipe out the grey market operating in international long-distance calls, VSNL managing director S. K. Gupta urged Trai to do away with the access deficit charge (ADC) and implement the carrier access code (CAC).

ADC is the difference between the costs incurred by an operator to provide fixed-line services and the tariff paid by the subscriber. For long-distance calls, besides network costs, the origination and termination charges include ADC payable to basic operators (in this case BSNL) to compensate for the below-cost rentals and local-call charges. “The grey market stands at one billion minutes per annum,” said Gupta. This is against the total 3.5 billion minutes of annual usage.

“An ILD call from BSNL or MTNL costs between 9-11 cents. On the other hand, grey operators allow calls to India for a mere 6-7 cents,” he explained.

Gupta added that ideally the access deficit should be recovered from the universal service obligation fund. “All operators can pay part of their revenue to this fund and those who provide below-cost service can be compensated from this fund.”

ADC has also led to the creation of a national long-distance grey market, with operators under-declaring traffic volumes.

Gupta also stressed that Trai should work towards implementation of carrier access code, so that users can choose their own long-distance operator.