Communications & IT minister, A Raja has approached the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee for reimbursement of Rs 29,598.33 crore for the 3G spectrum and the broadband wireless access or BWA spectrum which the state-run telecom operators, BSNL and MTNL had paid.
Out of this BSNL had to shell out Rs 18,500 crore for the 3G spectrum and BWA spectrum while MTNL paid Rs 11,097 crore.
In a letter to the finance minister, Raja has written, ?BSNL is the only service provider giving connectivity to the far-flung rural areas. The service rendered by BSNL in the rural areas of the country cannot be replicated?. While BSNL?s net profit eroded by 81% in 2008-09 to Rs 575 crore, MTNL recorded a net loss of Rs 2,514 crore.
He has cited the fact that in terms of the New Telecom Policy, 1999, BSNL (then department of telecommunications ) had not paid the entry fee for the Cellular Mobile Licences which was bundled with an initial spectrum of 4.4 Mhz. It was exempted from the Rs 1,650 crore, the pan-India charge given its social and rural obligations. Raja said the company should therefore be exempted from any such payments even for the 3G and the BWA spectrum.
?Both BSNL and MTNL have made a desperate request for reimbursement of the charges paid,? Raja said.
The spectrum had been allotted to BSNL and MTNL for all the circles in which they were operating in August, 2008. Both the operators were not required to participate in the auction process. While the private operators who participated in the auction were able to choose the circles they wanted to bid for, the two state-run telcos had no choice but to pay for spectrum in all the circles, irrespective of whether it made a business case for them or not.
MTNL virtually had to raise the entire amount for spectrum through loans from different banks to pay the government.