Bharti Airtel is looking to raise mobile phone call and data rates across all plans this year, chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said here.

The company last month increased the price of its minimum recharge or the entry-level for the 28-day mobile phone service plan by about 57 per cent to Rs 155 in eight circles. Responding to a query on the need for a hike when the company’s balance sheet is healthy, he said the return on capital in the business is very low and a tariff hike is expected this year.

“It (tariff hike) will happen across the board,” Mittal said at Mobile World Congress (MWC) here on Monday. He said the company has injected a lot of capital that has made the balance sheet strong but the return on capital in the industry is very low.

“That needs to change. We are talking of small increments that need to come in the Indian tariff situation. I hope it happens this year,” Mittal said. Asked about the impact of price increase on people at the bottom of the pyramid, he said the hike is low compared to the spending people are making on other things.

“Salaries have gone up, rents have gone up except one thing. There is no one complaining. People are consuming 30 GB for almost paying nothing. We don’t have more Vodafone (Idea) type of scenarios in the country.”

“We need a robust telecom company in the country. The dream of India is digital, economic growth is fully realised. I think the government is fully conscious, the regulator is conscious and people are also very conscious,” Mittal said.

The company stopped its minimum recharge plan of Rs 99, under which it offered 200MB of data and calls at the rate of Rs 2.5 paise per second. While the short-term ARPU target of Airtel is Rs 200, it focuses on a medium to long-term ARPU target of Rs 300 through price hikes for sustainable operations.

PTI