Successful spectrum bidders, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Idea, have made Rs10,808 crore towards upfront payments, helping the Government meet its fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent for 2014-15. Although the telecom companies have time till April 8 to make total upfront payment of Rs28,872 crore for spectrum won by them, they made part payments to the Government to help it meet the fiscal deficit target in the fiscal ended today. “I made an appeal to all successful companies to make payment keeping the country’s image on fiscal deficit in mind. I would like to thank all those companies who have made payments considering my appeal,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the news agency. Official sources said that telecom companies paid Rs10,808 crore on the last day of the financial year.
Bharti Airtel made part payment of Rs4,725 crore followed by Reliance Jio (Rs2,518 crore), Idea Cellular (Rs1,935 crore), Vodafone (Rs1,030 crore) and Tata Teleservices (Rs600 crore). The payment, they said, will help the Government in keeping the fiscal deficit within the target of 4.1 per cent of the GDP, or about Rs5.12 lakh crore, for 2014-15. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that efforts would be made to keep fiscal deficit at 4.1 per cent of the GDP. As per the new roadmap, fiscal deficit will be 3.9 per cent in 2015-16, 3.5 per cent in 2016-17 and 3 per cent by 2017-18.
As per DoT, the upfront payment due to Idea is Rs7,790.1 crore; Airtel Rs7,832.58 crore; Vodafone Rs6,867.93 crore; Reliance Jio Rs2,519.38 crore; Tata Teleservices Rs2,013.33 crore; RCom Rs1,106.95 crore and Aircel Rs742.5 crore. The 19-day spectrum auction that ended on March 25 evoked good response from the industry and bids worth Rs1,09,874.91 crore were received from seven companies. As per the final results, Idea made total commitment of Rs30,306.98 crore followed by Airtel at Rs29,130.20 crore, Vodafone Rs29,959.74 crore, Reliance Jio Infocomm Rs 10,077.53 crore, Reliance Communication Rs4,299.13 crore, Tata Teleservices Rs7,851.33 crore and Aircel Rs2,250 crore.