In a breather to incumbent mobile companies, the Bombay High Court has issued a stay order on the Government’s decision to collect a one-time fee for excess spectrum.

The Court has told the Department of Telecom (DoT) not to take any coercive action until March 1.

The stay order was based on a petition filed by Idea Cellular challenging the DoT order to pay the one-time fee.

Operators’ views

While Idea Cellular gets immediate relief, other operators said they would also file a petition and seek a stay on the DoT order.

“We have been saying that the decision to collect the one-time fee was illegal. All spectrum with the operators has been allocated by the Government under policies prevalent at that time,” said a Mumbai-based operator.

The Cabinet had earlier decided that all GSM operators with more than 4.4 Mhz spectrum will have to pay a one-time fee for the remaining period of their 20-year licence. Operators using CDMA technology will have to pay for all spectrum over 2.5 Mhz.

This was done after the Government was criticised for giving away additional spectrum on subscriber-linked criteria without paying any additional charge.

Under the new policy Airtel will have to pay a surcharge of about Rs 5,200 crore, Vodafone India about Rs 3,600 crore , Idea Cellular Rs1,882 crore and Reliance Communications Rs 1,730 crore.

The Government was hoping to get Rs 20,000 crore from the one-time fee but now the operators have two months before the court takes a final decision.

Efficient use

“There was a conscious decision on part of the Government to allocate spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz to increase the tele-density while ensuring that the allocated spectrum was efficiently utilised and not hoarded,” the Cellular Operators Association of India said in a letter to the Telecom Ministry.

Thomas.thomas@thehindu.co.in

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