Spectrum dues: No corporate guarantee, need bank guarantee, DoT to Voda-Idea

The department of telecommunications (DoT) is understood to have turned down the offer of Vodafone Idea to furnish a corporate guarantee instead of a bank guarantee to cover its deferred spectrum installment for the current fiscal. Sources said that DoT is soon going to write to the company to furnish a bank guarantee of around Rs 15,000 crore.

Operators who have bought spectrum in the past auctions paid between 25-33% of the amount upfront and pay the remaining over 16 years as deferred payment installments. Last year, the government extended the tenure of payment by two years by giving a moratorium on such payments for the current fiscal and the next. However, since interest for the period will need to be paid, operators need to furnish bank guarantee of the amount.