India telcos owe government over Rs. 30,000 crore as spectrum charges

As per official data, GSM players owe Rs. 25,748.91 crore as spectrum charges while the outstanding dues of CDMA operators stood at Rs. 4,409.14 crore. Demand notices have been issued to the operators to recover the amount.

"The demand notices have been issued after the completion of assessment," Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in Parliament.

GSM operators owe Rs. 23,177.66 crore as one-time spectrum charges and Rs. 2,571.25 crore as outstanding spectrum usage charges, including penalty and interest, Deora said.

In the case of CDMA players, the outstanding one-time spectrum charges are to the tune of Rs. 2,970.29 crore and Rs. 1438.85 crore as spectrum usage charges.

State-run BSNL owes the maximum of Rs. 6,979.59 crore as spectrum charges, followed by Bharti Airtel with Rs. 6,075.28 crore. Vodafone has Rs. 4,477.19 crore outstanding while Idea owes Rs. 2,206.09 crore to the government.

Reliance Communications owes Rs. 2,004.35 crore and Tata Teleservices has dues of Rs. 1,400.43 crore, Deora added.

Apart from spectrum charges, telecom operators have Rs. 9,646.78 crore as outstanding licence fees, including interest.

Deora said, "All telecom operators are provided due opportunity by the department to represent against the assessed licence fee, spectrum charges, penalties and interest, if any."

He added if the operators are not satisfied with the stand taken by the department, they can approach the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal.