Committee of Secretaries to suggest measures to mitigate financial stress in telecom sector

A panel of secretaries will take stock of financial stress in the debt-laden telecom sector and suggest steps to provide relief to carriers such as Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel that are facing an over ?80,000-crore payout in additional statutory dues after the Supreme Court order on adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

Officials in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said the Committee of Secretaries (CoS), headed by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba and likely comprising secretaries in the telecom, finance and law ministries, will consider steps such as a two-year moratorium on spectrum payments – for FY20 and FY21 – to ease the cash flow situation of telcos, besides reductions in the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) component of the licence fee, currently at 5% of AGR, and in spectrum usage charges (SUC), currently around 3% of AGR.