New Delhi, Nov 4 (TIWN) Telecom companies may push their average revenue per user (ARPU) higher by 25 per cent over the next 6-12 months to achieve a sustainable return on capital employed (RoCE) of 10 per cent, said a Crisil report.

"That could, in turn, beam up profitability, which will also help telcos invest in 5G networks over the medium term. Had the AGR liability not panned out as it did, the tariff hikes undertaken in December 2019 could have improved the industry`s RoCE to 7 per cent in fiscal 2021 and to 9 per cent in fiscal 2022, from lows of 3 per cent in fiscal 2020," it said.  With the Supreme Court`s final judgement on the AGR case in place, telcos have to bear AGR liabilities of Rs 1.15 lakh crore, which is expected to erode the benefits of the tariff hikes implemented last fiscal and bring the RoCE back to 4-5 per cent this fiscal, a Crisil estimate showed.  Sachin Gupta, Senior Director, Crisil Ratings, said, "Our base case assumes monthly ARPU reaching Rs 175-180 by next fiscal from Rs 140 in the first half of the current fiscal so as to generate a sustainable RoCE of 10 per cent.