Telecom relief panel folds up

A committee of secretaries (COS) constituted to look at a relief package for the debt-laden telecom sector has been wound up, days after the Union cabinet allowed to defer payments due for spectrum bought via auctions until the end of March 2022, a source said.

While this effectively ends any further reliefs to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea — who have been the worst hit by the Supreme Court judgment that favoured the government on the recovery of dues worth Rs 1.47 lakh crore — telecom secretary Anshu Prakash said the department of telecom (DoT) has not referred the issue of fixing the floor price for telecom tariffs to regulator Trai.