Some operators say the proposal implies that they would have to pay full dues of the previous years, in addition to dues of the 1999-2000 fiscal, the fourth year of operation of telecom licences.

"This in turn means that the government is not willing to wait for a reply to the revenue sharing reference made to the Attorney General and instead proceed with the drive to mop up dues," said an industry source.

But the plan has quite a few takers as well. When contacted, a cellular operator in the Uttar Pradesh circle expressed his willingness for the installment plan, saying that it would be counter productive to resist this move of the DoT.

"All pending dues will have to be cleared ultimately so there is no point in waiting for revenue sharing," he said, adding that revenue sharing forexisting operators was a non-starter and the sooner that companies understood this, the better it would be.

This assumes importance as Union minister of communication Jagmohan has made it clear that the reference to the AGI is related to the fourth-year period after April 1, 1999 and has nothing to do with arrears. As a result, DoT is set to issue notices to companies that have not complied with it's request to cover arrears by way of enhanced bank guarantees.

Sources said that while DoT will proceed against cellular operators, in the case of four basic service providers - Hughes Ispat, Tata Teleservices, Reliance and Essar - DoT will not be able to implement such a strategy due to a recent court order keeping their bank guarantees alive on payment of 20 per cent dues.

Jagmohan has asked Telecom Commission chairman Anil Kumar to seek legal opinion on the feasibility of such a course of action allowing operators the option of either paying in lumpsum or via quarterly installments.

The minister is infavour of "more energetic and vigorous steps" for recovering all dues and ensuring that arrears are wiped out at the earliest. Sources said the minister has expressed distress over the fact that arrears had been allowed to accumulate to such an extent that it was difficult to even fix the mode of recovery. Sources said that Jagmohan had also taken note of the CAG's critical remarks against the government in the Audit Report of 1997-98 for not recovering the dues.

It now seems clear that DoT's recovery action will proceed with greater vigour as the minister has told officials that the decision to recover licence fees has nothing to do with the caretaker status of the BJP-led alliance.