To boost rural telephony and e-governance initiatives, the department of telecommunications has decided to waive licence fee on rural landline telephones.

The waiver, decided recently by the Telecom Commission, a wing of the DoT, is worth around Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) per year.

The commission also decided to reduce the levy towards the Universal Service Obligation Fund from the present 5 per cent to 3 per cent of the adjusted gross revenue.

This is applicable for service providers who have covered over 95 per cent of the rural areas, the Press Information Bureau said in a statement.