Telcos have total Rs 50K cr arrears from licence fees, spectrum charges

Telecom companies have arrears, including that from licence fee and spectrum charges, to the tune of Rs 49,988.44 crore, Parliament was informed on Friday. 

“The total amount under litigation is Rs 32,614.45 crore out of total arrears of Rs 49,988.44 crore. The cases are being defended vigorously in TDSAT, various high courts and in Hon’ble Supreme Court,” Minister of Communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. 

The demands are issued as per the terms and conditions of the Licence agreements to realise the revenue in time, he added. 

Of the total arrears, Rs 16,200.76 crore was on account of licence fee, Rs 24,797.68 crore in spectrum charges, Rs 7,328.75 crore in Electro Magnetic Frequency (EMF) penalty and Rs 1,658 crore in Customer Application Form (CAF) penalty, the Minister said. 

Also, MNP testing fee arrears stood at Rs 0.49 crore and EMR testing fee arrears were to the tune of Rs 2.76 crore.