The Cabinet had, almost six weeks ago while announcing a revenue sharing formula for all new telecom licences, referred the issue of transition of the existing operators to a similar arrangement to the AG. With the ``meter ticking for the telecom operators as there is no word from the AG's office, telecom projects continue to be pushed deeper into the red''.

So far, there has been no decision from the office of the Attorney General and the matter still hangs fire.

According to sources, there is no real pressure within the government to push a decision from the AG's office as announcement of electionssoon after the Cabinet referred the matter to the AG has queered the pitch for the telecom operators.

With all these odds against the industry, the sources say that if a decision does not come through within the next couple of weeks, or before the election dates are announced, it may be postponed till a new government is in place by October-end and early next year before any decision is taken on the issue.

Given the earlier stand of the AG that any decision in allowing revenue sharing can only be done with prospective effect and not retrospectively, this will mean that all operators would have to pay their licence fees for the current year, amounting to almost Rs 3,024 crore for all operators -- cellular and basic. Added to this is the interest on the licence fees during 1999-2000 as well as on the outstanding amount of Rs 3,000 which the industry still owes the government on account of licence fees for 1998-99. This works out to another Rs 1,200 crore.

The Cellular Operators Association of India hascalled for a meeting of its executive council on Friday which will discuss some of these major issues which stare the industry in the face.