Reliance Communications will hike tariffs by up to 20 per cent for its GSM pre-paid subscribers, effective April 25, in a bid to offset rising material costs. The move, likely to be followed by other players, would lead to another round of tariff hikes.

RCom, which straddles both GSM and CDMA services, will increase headline tariffs to 1.6 paise per second from the present 1.5 paise. The tariffs on discounted and promotional plans will increase by up to 20 per cent, the company said in a statement.

The revised tariffs will be applicable across all its circles.

“We continue to focus on growing profitable and paid minutes on our network and the current tariff hikes are part of our continued efforts to reduce free and discounted minutes and offset rising costs of input materials,” RCom Chief Executive Officer (Consumer Business) Gurdeep Singh said.

“We expect revenue per minute to improve over the next few quarters and this will impact our performance positively,” Singh added.

Shares in RCom closed down 2.63 per cent at ₹129.70 on a BSE on Wednesday, after an intra-day gain of 3 per cent. The BSE ended down 0.92 per cent.

OTHER HIKES Earlier during the week, Bharti Airtel reduced validity of its recharge coupon 125 to 21 days from 28 in Delhi circle. However, this does not change the headline tariff, a spokesperson said.

GSM operator Vodafone India had also reduced validity of a promotional pack voucher from 30 days to 24 days, thereby increasing tariffs.

“There is absolutely no change in the base tariffs. Promotion packs change from time to time for segments periodically as part of continuously refreshing the promotion pack portfolio,” a Vodafone India spokesperson said.

Telecom operators were reeling under debt burden due to competitive pricing and recent spectrum auctions, making it necessary to hike tariffs to improve revenues.

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