Contending that the "real" beneficiaries of the new telecom policy are metro operators because their major financial commitments were to commence from the current year, the forum has said metro operators will not only be able to realise this profit but also bring in at a premium equity based on the windfall profits.

The forum, in its public interest litigation (PIL) before the Delhi high court, has said government should have considered the cancellation of licences instead of rewarding these cash-rich defaulters. The crucial hearing on the PIL is slated for Tuesday, with government and operators expected to put up stiff defence of the revenue-sharing scheme.

The forum has said that metro operators were awarded their licences in 1994 at extremely low licence fees for the first three years, followed by a fee of Rs 6,023 per subscriber from the fourth year onwards. Pointing out that metro operators have only paid Rs 130 crore as licence fee till now, the forum said that by allowing a change over to revenue sharing for metro operators and extending the licence period by another 10 years, government was lowering the share of its revenue to favour the incumbent metro operators and preserving their current monopoly.

The forum said that metro operators have to pay Rs 8,300 crore to government for the remaining period of the licence and claimed that this was the amount that the government was foregoing in lieu of a revenue share of 15 per cent amounting to Rs 3,000 crore.

The PIL points out that the increased payment of Rs 6,023 per subscriber has already been covered by the recent Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) mandated increase in monthly rentals from Rs 156 to Rs 600. The petitioners have argued that the quantum of licence fee has been used by the cellular operators to ask for a hike in rentals. "It is surprising that after having received these benefits, the operators are still clamouring for waivers and government has not made an attempt to negotiate lower rentals and tariffs for subscribers in the revised scheme," the PIL says.

The PIL also says that metro operators are not sick and have made huge capital gains through sale of equity or through public issues. "There is no justification of clubbing them with other operators who are arguing that that they are not viable due to the high licence fees that they have committed," it says.