The department of telecommunications (DoT) on Tuesday issued demand notices to telecom operators Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone Idea, asking them to pay for the spectrum purchased in the recently concluded auctions.
The telecom operators have been given time till July 26 to make the payments either in 20 equal yearly instalments, or settle the amount in one go. Telcos can also make a part payment upfront, which can be a multiple of complete years with a minimum of two years.
In the spectrum auction in June, the government sold 141 MHz spectrum worth Rs 11,340.8 crore. Going by the 10,523 MHz spectrum on sale, only 1.3% got sold.
Bharti Airtel acquired the maximum airwaves, spending Rs 6,857 crore. It bought a total of 97 MHz spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands.
Reliance Jio, which was expected to bid the maximum considering its earnest money deposit was the highest, turned out to be in the third position, even lower than Vodafone Idea. Jio spent Rs 973 crore to buy just 14.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, whereas Vodafone Idea bought 30 MHz spectrum worth Rs 3,510 crore.
If telecom operators choose a 20-year instalment period, for Airtel the yearly outgo will be Rs 674.18 crore. Vodafone Idea will have to pay an yearly amount of Rs 345.15 crore, whereas for Jio the spends would come around Rs 96 crore, according to demand notices sent by DoT. Telecom operators are also required to pay the applicable GST on the demands.
In 2022, the government had mopped up Rs 1.5 trillion from the 5G spectrum auctions. This time, the sale was muted as telecom operators had already put in a lot of investment in the earlier auction for rolling out 5G network.