Airtel and Vi may roll out indirect tariff hikes later this year, here is what it means

According to a report, industry executives and analysts speculate that Airtel and Vi could resort to indirect tariff hikes as Jio continues to offer affordable plans.

Airtel and Vi could introduce indirect tariff hikes to boost average revenue per user (ARPU), an online report citing industry executives and analysts has stated. Indirect tariff hikes would mean that even the pricing of the plans would remain the same, their benefits would, however, be reduced. Further, the telcos could count the current tariffs as pre-tax or exclusive of taxes and users would be subjected to pay extra. As of now, all prepaid mobile plans are priced inclusive of taxes. Apart from the pre-tax, the indirect methods of tariff hikes could include reducing benefits from a plan like the validity period of postpaid plans or cutting down on data or voice allowances on existing prepaid plans without changing the pack value. This would lead customers to opt for a plan of a higher value, analysts told ET.