Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest private telecom operator has emerged as the highest revenue payer for the quarter ended March 31. The telecom major has paid the highest amount of Rs 1,097.04 crore to the government in terms of licence fee and spectrum usage charge. As per the data compiled by telecom regulator TRAI, Bharti paid Rs 708.6 crore as licence fee and Rs 388.44 crore as the spectrum charge for the quarter ended March 31 of financial year 2010-11.

Meanwhile, new players like Etisalat, Unitech Wireless, Loop, STel and Sistema Shyam Teleservices - who got the spectrum (radio waves) in 2008 - paid Rs 61.86 crore as the spectrum charge and licence fee to the government. Vodafone Essar was second after Bharti which has paid a combined amount of Rs 719.24 crore for the quarter.

Besides, BSNL and MTNL, the two state-run firms have paid a total of Rs 462.11 crore for the spectrum charges and licence fees. Other private operators included Tata Teleservices (Rs 292.64 crore), Idea Cellular (Rs 463.65 crore) and Reliance Communications (Rs 262.47 crore).

Bharti Airtel’s net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 has decline by 13.70% at Rs 1837.90 crore as compared to Rs 2129.70 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Its total income has increased by 10.20% at Rs 9856.60 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 8944.30 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.

The company has registered fall of 18.13% in its net profit for the year ended March 31, 2011 at Rs 7716.90 crore as compared to Rs 9426.20 crore for the year ended March 31, 2010. Its total income has increased by 6.80% at Rs 38128.70 crore for the year from Rs 35699.20 crore in previous year.