Govt gets Rs 32,300 cr upfront payment from spectrum sale

Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 11,374.7 cr while upfront amount due from it was Rs 7,832.20 cr

The government has received a total upfront payment of over Rs 32,300 crore from telecom players against the spectrum sold during the March auction, well above the minimum outstanding due of Rs 28,835.34 crore.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel has paid the entire sum for Rajasthan and North East circles.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has received Rs 32,377.85 crore, nearly Rs 3,500 crore above the minimum due, sources told PTI.

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom operator, has paid Rs 11,374.7 crore, while the upfront amount due from it was Rs 7,832.20 crore.

All other telecom operators have paid the minimum amount due from them.

The bank guarantees have also been received as per demand, they said.

India's biggest telecom spectrum auction ended on March 25 after 19 days of fierce bidding that fetched bids worth about Rs 1.10 lakh crore to the government.

After the completion of the auction, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made an appeal to all successful companies to make payments.

The proceeds from the auction of airwaves are expected to help the government keep the fiscal deficit within the target of 4.1% of the GDP, or about Rs 5.12 lakh crore, for 2014-15.

As per DoT, Aircel has paid Rs 742.5 crore, Idea Cellular Rs 7,734.2 crore, Reliance Communications Rs 1,104.1 crore, Reliance Jio Infocomm Rs 2,591.8 crore, Tata Teleservices Rs 2,013.3 crore and Vodafone Rs 6,817.2 crore.

Many successful spectrum bidders, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Idea Cellular had paid about Rs 10,808 crore towards upfront payments till March 31, helping the government meet its fiscal deficit target of 4.1% for 2014-15.

As per the final results, Idea made total commitment of Rs 30,252.87 crore followed by Airtel at Rs 29,129.08 crore, Vodafone Rs 25,806.06 crore, Reliance Jio Infocomm Rs 97,632.81 crore, Reliance Communication Rs 4,290.49 crore, Tata Teleservices Rs 7,851.33 crore and Aircel Rs 2,250 crore.