Telcos owe govt Rs 452 cr as spectrum fee

Leading telecom company Bharti Airtel owes the government Rs 152.77 crore, the highest outstanding among all operators, towards spectrum charges and licence fees, Parliament was informed today.

The total outstanding amount, including interest, against GSM operators as on March 31, 2010, is Rs 451.75 crore, out of which Bharti Airtel has the highest dues, Minister of State for Telecom and IT Sachin Pilot said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Bharti Airtel has an outstanding of Rs 135.11 crore towards spectrum charges and Rs 17.66 crore towards licence fees.

To a query on whether the government proposes to penalise defaulting GSM operators who have not paid their dues, Pilot said, "Penalty is imposed as per the licence agreement."

Followed by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone has the second highest outstanding of Rs 71.77 crore (towards spectrum charges only) among the private GSM players.

There is no outstanding against Vodafone in terms of licence fees.

Anil Ambani group firms Reliance Communication and Reliance Telecom have a combined outstanding of Rs 53.07 crore, mainly towards licence fees, as on March 31, 2010.

Among the state-owned telecom firms, BSNL has dues of Rs 84.44 crore towards licence fees, while MTNL has an outstanding of Rs 17.22 crore.

BPL Cellular and BPL Mobile Communication Limited have outstanding dues of Rs 39.83 crore, Pilot said in the Lok Sabha.

Birlas-owned Idea Cellular has an outstanding of Rs 7.07 crore towards non-payment of spectrum charges.

Among other GSM players, Aircel, Etisalat DB and Unitech have marginal outstandings of less than Rs 1 crore, either on account of non-payment of spectrum charges or licence fees, as of March 31 this year.