Refuting allegations that additional spectrum was allocated to the GSM operators free of cost, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Friday said the GSM industry had already paid Rs 1,800 crore over and above the base 2% spectrum usage charge.
TV Ramachandran, director general, COAI said it was ?absurd and incorrect to allege that the government lost Rs 1,800 crore, when the figures showed it received an additional Rs 1,800 crore till date on account of escalated charges applied by them for spectrum usage.?
He also said if the present rates were to continue, the GSM industry would pay over Rs 10,000 crore as spectrum usage charges to the government over the next three years, of which Rs 6,000 crore would be the incremental charges for additional spectrum.
?The usage charges currently applied by the government impose an initial usage charge of 2% for an allotment of 4.4MHz spectrum and additional 1% charge on each additional tranche of spectrum that is allotted to the GSM operators. As per the current formula, the GSM operators with allotments of 10MHz are already paying spectrum usage charges at 4% of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and this percentage will rise to 6% of AGR for allotments of 15 MHz,? Ramachandran said in its letter to communications and IT minister A Raja.
According to COAI, a GSM operator in Delhi, could during the tenure of his licence and as per the current applicable rates, pay the government as much as Rs 1,700 crore as charges for spectrum usage. This was ten times higher than the entry fee set for Delhi under the unified access service licence and far higher than the fees paid for mobile licences internationally, it said.