The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has received a total of ₹15,896.51 crore from 16 telecom operators, due as spectrum usage charges (SUC) and license fees (LF), while a balance of ₹1,3,0440.47 crore is due from these firms.
Vodafone Idea (Idea Cellular and Vodafone Group) has paid a total of ₹3,500 crore, Bharti Group of companies paid ₹9,500 crore and Telenor India paid ₹500 crore, according to a reply provided in Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Communications, Human Resource Development and Electronics & Information Technology, Sanjay Dhotre.
Dhotre, answering an unstarred question from Member of Parliament Adoor Prakash, said DoT received ₹2,197.37 crore from Tata Group, ₹195.18 crore from Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) and ₹3.96 crore from beleaguered Reliance Communications (RCom).
The licensor has not received any money from State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Aircel Group, Etisalat DB Telecom, Quadrant Televentures, S Tel, Videocon Telecommunications, Sistema Shyam Teleservices and Loop Telecom.
These are provisional dues and are likely to be revised, it said.
The Indian telecom industry, which at one point had 16 players, has now been reduced to three private operators and two State-owned companies, following fierce competition and price war.
The total dues from the 16 telecom operators – many of which have shut shop - stand at ₹1,46,336.98 crore of which ₹92,642 is on account of LF dues and the remaining ₹53,694.98 crore SUC dues, the minister said.
Idea Cellular has total dues of ₹15,230.37 crore (LF ₹8,485 crore and SUC ₹6,745.37 crore), Vodafone Group ₹37,808.23 crore (LF ₹19,824, SUC ₹17,984.23 crore), while Bharti Airtel has total dues of ₹35,586.01 crore (LF ₹21,682 crore, SUC ₹13,904.01 crore) and Telenor has total dues of ₹2,154.35 crore (LF ₹1,950 crore and SUC ₹204.35 crore).
Tata Group companies’ total outstanding are at ₹13,823.29 crore (LF at ₹9,987 crore, SUC at ₹3,836.29 crore), while that of RJio stood at ₹60.52 crore (LF ₹13 crore, SUC ₹47.52 crore) and BSNL at ₹4,989.46 crore (LF ₹2,099 crore, SUC ₹2,890.46 crore).