Govt to reject telcos demand on spectrum payment

The Finance Ministry is likely to reject a demand from the telecom industry for a two-year ban on payment for spectrum bought in previous auctions, reported Business Standard.

“Given the challenging fiscal situation this year, the government is banking on non-tax revenue items to make up for some of the anticipated tax revenue shortfalls. So any relaxation or waiver cannot be given on spectrum fee,” a senior Finance Ministry official was quoted as saying.

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the government on recovering adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of about Rs 92,000 crore from telecom service providers including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and state-owned MTNL and BSNL.