Friday, August 16, 2013: On Wednesday, the Minister of State for Telecom and IT, Milind Deora said that mobile phone companies owe more than Rs 390 billion with respect to outstanding spectrum usage charges, one-time charge on holding airwaves above the contracted limit, license fee, penalties and interest.
In response to queries raised by members in the lower house of Parliament, the minister answered that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was not contemplating any proposal to reduce penalties on erring service providers. Moreover, with the purpose of recovering dues, it had issued demand notices to such companies. On the other hand, telecom companies are uneasy with the DoT’s decision to impose blanket fine to the tune of Rs 500 million with respect to any anomaly.
Apart from this, GSM telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular owe money worth Rs 231 billion for one-time charge on all spectrum held by the companies beyond 6.2 MHz since July 2008. It is learnt that the government has demanded Rs 52 billion from Bharti Airtel, Rs 36 billion from Vodafone India and Rs 18.8 billion from Idea Cellular.
In response to the demand for payment of dues to the government, the private sector companies have challenged the demands in the court of law and matters are still pending in the court. The minister also stated that public sector units such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., owe more than Rs 90 billion to the government and hence, they have been asked to make the payments.
Telecom companies owe spectrum usage charges of nearly Rs 40 billion comprising penalties and interest. According to government records, outstanding charges from license fee stands at Rs 41 billion. And, if interest and penalties are included, then the total payment stands at Rs 96.4 billion.
Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No.1 Electronics B2B magazine
