DoT seeks Attorney General Opinion on entry fee refund

19 Nov 2012 Evaluate

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has again sought legal opinion on the matter of refunding entry fee to telecom operators whose licenses were quashed by the Supreme Court, after an EGoM decided to adjust fees of only those companies who win spectrum in the auction. This dilemma arises in light of several telecom operators such as Etisalat DB, Sistema Shyam, ByCell, S Tel, and Loop Telecom sending notices to the government and seeking protection of their investment.

According to reports, DoT has asked for the Attorney General’s opinion on “whether entry fee, paid by licensees whose licenses have been ordered to be quashed by the Supreme Court needs to be refunded/released/adjusted to all the licencees, as requested by them, whether participating in auction or not.” The Supreme Court cancelled 122 telecom licences belonging to eight telecom operators in the 2G scam in February this year. However, Attorney General in August 2012 ruled out the need to refund licence fee paid by operators affected by SC judgment, stating none of its need arising at this stage.

Further, it remains important to be noted that, of eight companies whose licenses were cancelled, only three companies -Idea Cellular, Videocon and Telenor (majority stakeholder in Uninor), participated and won spectrum in the auction held last week. Meanwhile, the story was far worse with regard to another 60 blocks with Bharti and Vodafone being the only bidders as the other telecom companies - annoyed over an exorbitantly high reserve price of Rs 13,850 crore for all 22 circles set at the auction-- remained at the bay.

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