Bharti Airtel Pays More than Rs 84 Billion to Government Due to Partly Clear Spectrum

Bharti Airtel, one of the big telecom companies, has paid a large part of the spectrum outstanding amount to the Central Government. The company has paid more than Rs 84 billion to the government. The company had purchased the spectrum in 2016 for approximately Rs 17,852 crore.

Although, Bharti Airtel Has not told how much outstanding amount it has to pay after this payment. Recently, the Supreme Court had rejected the request of telecom companies for re-calculation of the amount due to the government. Bharti Airtel said that the payment of more than Rs 84 billion made to the Telecom Department includes an interest rate of 9.3 percent. In the first quarter of the current financial year, it had fully paid the spectrum fees for 2012 and 2015. Bharti Airtel did not respond to a request for comment sent by Reuters.

Analysts at rating agency ICRA estimate that Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have to pay around Rs 1 lakh crore to the government as adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues. This includes spectrum charges and licensing fees. As a last resort, these companies had filed a petition against a similar decision of the Supreme Court three years ago. Their argument was that the Telecom Department had made mistakes in the calculation of the alleged outstanding amount of AGR. These companies said that only the revenue from their core services should be counted in the calculation of the outstanding amount, whereas the government argued that non-core revenue should also be included in AGR. This also includes the amount received from rent or sale of land.

In a 2019 decision, the Supreme Court had upheld the government’s definition of AGR calculation. The Supreme Court’s rejection of its request for recalculation of AGR has dealt a major blow to struggling Vodafone Idea, which has to pay around Rs 700 billion to the government in spectrum charges and license fees. The central government is also the largest shareholder in this company with 23.1 percent stake.