Task cut out for DoT to convince FinMin on telecom relief package

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) may find it difficult to convince the Finance Ministry to give the go ahead for telecom sector-specific relief as the latter has expressed apprehensions about the bailout options laid out by the department, sources told The Indian Express.

Among the relief package options chosen by the DoT are a possibility of extending the moratorium on spectrum payment obligations by another couple of years or allowing the telcos to encash, for some years, the bank guarantees the companies have submitted before asking them to re-submit these, the sources said.

“The discussions are still on. A sector-specific relief will be difficult because the government has received requests from other sectors such as the food and beverages, hotels industry as well for relief,” a senior government official said.