TDSAT judgment on OTSC

On July 4, 2019, Telecom Disputes & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) gave its judgment on One Time Spectrum Charges (OTSC) slashing substantially the amount demanded by DoT from Vodafone Idea Ltd on account of “excess spectrum”. In its order, TDSAT has said that OTSC is payable only for excess spectrum allocated after May 2008, which had a condition that the amount payable shall be notified later. This made the telcos aware of the charges that they will have to pay if they take spectrum. But, this will be a small amount, for two reasons. First, most of the excess spectrum was allotted before May 2008. Second, the balance period of license after May 2008, is only six years because, the 20-year period of licenses had ended in 2014/15.