Telcos with quashed licences to get demand notices of Rs 2452 cr

SC in 2013 had asked the govt to charge fees from companies that continued operation even after cancellation of their licences on Feb 2, 2012

The Departmentof Telecommunications (DoT) is at the final stage of issuing demand notices to telecom companies, whose licences were quashed by the Supreme Court in February, 2012.

The DoT will ask for Rs 2451.86 crore from nine companies as these telcos were permitted to continue operations till completion of spectrum auction.

The apex court had in February, 2012 quashed 122 2G licences. The Supreme Court later in 2013 had asked the government to charge fees from companies that continued operation even after cancellation of their licences on February 2, 2012.

The department had earlier estimated the demand at Rs 2,764.29 crore, including basic fee, fine and interest, from nine telecom operators. "The issue relating to liability of the licencees, who discontinued their operations, between February 2, 2012 and this date shall be decided separately," the SupremeCourt had said in its order on February 15, 2013.

According to provisional charges, liability of Sistema Shyam Teleservices amounted to Rs 636.90 crore, Uninor Rs 652.69 crore, Idea Cellular Rs 218.47 crore, Loop Telecom Rs 124.18 crore, S Tel Rs 9.58 crore. Spice Communications (acquired by Idea Cellular) Rs236.24 crore, Tata Teleservices Rs 2.99 crore, Videocon Telecommunications Rs 476.69crore and Etisalat DB Rs 94.12 crore. However, most of these companies, excluding Sistema Shyam Teleservices, closed or scaled down their operations before February 15, 2013.

The one spectrum fee is the charge operators were asked to pay for holding additional spectrum. In 2008, telecom firms were given 4.4 MHz spectrum along with licence for Rs 1,658 crore for pan-India operations.