Cabinet to discuss upon levying one-time spectrum fee on Nov 8

08 Nov 2012 Evaluate

The Cabinet is likely to discuss the issue of levying one-time fee of around Rs 31,000 crore for the spectrum that incumbent telecom companies hold, in its meeting on November 8, 2012. Further, the cabinet is also likely to deliberate upon the issue of funding for Rs 20,000 crore for National Optical Fibre Network that aims to connect 2.5 lakh village panchayats with broadband internet.

Last month, the EGoM headed by finance minister P Chidambaram decided that all existing operators would have to pay a one-time spectrum charge. This one-time spectrum fee is divided into two components. First, telcom companies have to pay for all their 2G spectrum holdings beyond 4.4 MHz and 2.5 MHz in the case of CDMA players prospectively for the remaining period of their licences. This charge will be linked to the spectrum price in the upcoming auctions scheduled to begin on November 12. Meanwhile, the second component is that incumbent GSM operators such as Bharti, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL will be charged a one-time fee retrospectively for all 2G airwaves they hold beyond the 6.2 MHz mark from July 2008 to December 2012.

Although as per Department of Telecommunications (DoT) estimates, the government can mop as much as Rs 30,927 crore by imposing a one-time licence fee on telecom operators. However out of the total amount, one which sums up to be Rs 11,818 crore, will fall on state run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), thereby leaving the government with revenue of Rs 19,109 crore.

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