Reliance Industries’ (RIL) telecom arm -- Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) has paid about Rs 1,133 crore to the Department of Telecom towards spectrum dues in the last three to four days. Vodafone Idea has made Rs 2,421 crore payment towards spectrum dues, while Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 977 crore. Taken together, these three players have paid over Rs 4,531 crore towards spectrum dues late last week. The payments came in before the due date.
The sparring telcos -some of which are reeling under acute financial stress and are seeking immediate relief measures-have made the payment towards deferred spectrum liability (or instalment payment for radiowaves bought in past auctions) which fell due on October 21.
Reliance Industries is India’s largest private sector company. The company’s activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and 4G digital services.
