Cabinet gives nod for one-time spectrum fee on telecom operators

08 Nov 2012 Evaluate

In an attempt to create level playing field between old and new operators, Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Cabinet on Nov 8 approving the empowered group of minister’s (EGoM’s) recommendations, levied about Rs 31,000 crore as a one-time fee on spectrum held by incumbent telecom firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.

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.

In the meeting, though the Cabinet approved the levy of spectrum discovered price for the GSM operators, for CDMA players Department of Telecom (DOT) will come out with a benchmark later, in absence of any company being in fray to buy CDMA spectrum.

Meanwhile, the DoT had previously estimated that the levy to fetch the government Rs 30,927 crore, but with the exact quantum of levy on CDMA operators not yet clear, the government's net take could not be immediately ascertained.

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