The Government has received a total upfront payment of over Rs32,300 crore from telecom players against the spectrum sold during the March auction, well above the minimum outstanding due of Rs28,835.34 crore. Telecom major Bharti Airtel has paid the entire sum for Rajasthan and North East circles.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has received Rs 32,377.85 crore, nearly Rs 3,500 crore above the minimum due, sources told the news agency . Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest telecom operator, has paid Rs11,374.7 crore, while the upfront amount due from it was Rs7,832.20 crore. All other telecom operators have paid the minimum amount due from them. The bank guarantees have also been received as per demand, they said.
India’s biggest telecom spectrum auction ended on March 25 after 19 days of fierce bidding that fetched bids worth about Rs1.10 lakh crore to the government. After the completion of the auction, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made an appeal to all successful companies to make payments. The proceeds from the auction of airwaves are expected to help the Government keep the fiscal deficit within the target of 4.1 per cent of the GDP, or about Rs5.12 lakh crore, for 2014-15.
As per DoT, Aircel has paid Rs742.5 crore, Idea Cellular Rs7,734.2 crore, Reliance Communications Rs1,104.1 crore, Reliance Jio Infocomm Rs2,591.8 crore, Tata Teleservices Rs2,013.3 crore and Vodafone Rs6,817.2 crore. Many successful spectrum bidders, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Idea Cellular had paid about Rs10,808 crore towards upfront payments till March 31, helping the government meet its fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent for 2014-15.
As per the final results, Idea made total commitment of Rs30,252.87 crore followed by Airtel at Rs29,129.08 crore, Vodafone Rs25,806.06 crore, Reliance Jio Infocomm Rs97,632.81 crore, Reliance Communication Rs4,290.49 crore, Tata Teleservices Rs7,851.33 crore and Aircel Rs2,250 crore.