The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued demand notices of more than Rs 23,000 crore to telcos — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and BSNL, for the one-time fee.
Telecom operators would have to pay the one-time charges for holding spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz retrospectively, from July 2008 to January 1, 2013. The government had also asked telcos to pay for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz for the remaining period of their licences. It has fixed the charges based on the prices discovered in the November auction.
BSNL tops the chart with Rs 6,912 crore, while the country’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel would need to pay about Rs 5,201 crore, followed by Vodafone Rs 3,599 crore, MTNL Rs 3,205 crore, Idea Rs 2,113 crore (includes Rs 231.5 crore of Spice), Aircel Rs 1,365 crore (includes Rs 14 crore of Dishnet), Loop Mobile Rs 606 crore and RCom Rs 173 crore.
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