Mumbai, June 18: Nine circle cellular operators in the country owe a whopping Rs 1,262.77 crore as outstanding licence fee to the department of telecommunications (DoT) as on June 15, 1998. According to DoT sources, all the operators with the exception of BPL US West, Escotel Mobile and Bharti Telenet, have defaulted on licence fee payments.JT Mobile, the licence holder for the Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab circles, tops the list with total outstanding dues of Rs 468.46 crore -- Rs 158.30 crore for Karnataka, Rs 113.75 crore for Andhra Pradesh and Rs 196.41 crore for Punjab.
Koshika Telecom follows with Rs 193.56 crore for its four circles. While the company's outstanding dues for the UP (East) circle amounts to Rs 83.04 crore, its dues for the UP (West) circle make up Rs 62.38 crore. Koshika's dues of Rs 35.34 crore for the Orissa circle and Rs 12.80 crore for the Bihar circle make up the rest.
The Hinduja-led Fascel, which has the Gujarat licence, owes Rs 163.10 crore as licence fees. It isclosely followed by Birla AT&T with outstanding dues of Rs 156.90 crore (Rs 81.55 crore for Gujarat and Rs 75.35 crore for Maharashtra).
The other major defaulters include Aircell Digilink, which owes Rs 133.75 crore -- Rs 68.54 for UP (east), Rs 43.40 crore for Rajasthan, and Rs 21.81 crore for Haryana), Modicom -- Rs 60.43 crore (Rs 31.66 for Karnataka and Rs 28.77 crore for Punjab), Tata Communications -- Rs 45.50 crore for Andhra Pradesh, Hexacomm -- Rs 26.11 crore (Rs 26.04 crore for Rajasthan and Rs 7.5 lakh for the north-east) and Reliance Telecom -- Rs 14.96 crore (Rs 8.99 crore for Orissa, Rs 3.41 crore for Bihar, Rs 1.16 crore for Madhya Pradesh, Rs 97.5 lakh for West Bengal, Rs 34 lakh for Himachal Pradesh, Rs 2.5 lakh for the north-east and Rs 3 lakh for Assam).
According to sources, bulk of the default has occurred during the last two quarters when the cash flow situation of operators worsened. In fact, a study commissioned by DoT and conducted by Industrial Credit & Investment Corporation OfIndia (ICICI) on the financial health of the cellular operators had warned of widespread defaults in the payment of licence fees if measures to help the cellular industry are not taken immediately.
The study had suggested an extension in the cellular-licence period from the present 10 to 15 years and a two-year moratorium on payment of licence fees which is presently under consideration.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
