15, అక్టోబర్ 2012, సోమవారం

BSNL, MTNL sought bailout- Private Operators Opposed


The CMDs of BSNL and MTNL have written letters to the Telecom Department requesting the Government to bear the fee for retention of spectrum allocated to it already, exceeding beyong 4.4 MHz. As per the recommendation of the meeting of  EGoM (Empowered Group of Ministers headed by the Finance Minister) held on 08.10.2012 BSNL and MTNL have to pay atleast Rs 6250 crore and 4640 crore respectively for the  2G spectrum they hold beyond  4.4. MHz. This amount is likely to increase in case the price of the spectrum to be found in the auction to be  held in November 2012 is more than the minimum price decided by the Government. The private operators also have to pay the amount for the spectrum they are holding beyond 4.4 MHz. This amount to be paid for the spectrum is decided based on the  remaining period of the license of the concerned telecom companies. 

Since Airtel, Vodafone and some other private operators were given license in 1993/94/95 for mobile services, their license period of 20 years would expire in 2013/14/15. But BSNL and MTNL were granted license for mobile services only in the year 2000 and hence their license period of 20 years will expire in 2020. Therefore the remaining license period of BSNL and MTNL is more compared to Airtel, Vodafone etc and hence BSNL and MTNL have to pay more amount than the privatee operators. This is discrimination, since the private operators completed 15/16/17 years out of 20 years of their icense period without any one time payment for spectrum and now they have to pay the one time amount for the remaining one/two/three years of their license period, whereas the BSNL and MTNL have completed only 12 years out of their 20 years license period and they have to pay thee one time amount for the remaining 8 years of their license period. Thus the recommendation of the EGoM is in favour of the private operators and against the BSNL and MTNL.

Citing the fact that the BSNL and MTNL are already facing losses since 2009-10 and hence they cannot pay the amount for the spectrum, the CMDs of these PSUs requested the DoT to bear this amount for retention of spectrum. It appears the Dot may recommend this to the Government.

But the private operators are arguing that to see that there is level playing field between all the telecom operators, the Goveernment should not ber the spectrumamoun for BSNL and MTNL and they should be asked to pay. The private operators are demanding that in case Government decides to bear the amount for spectrum to BSNL and MTNL, the Government should bear the amount for spectrum for the private telecom companies also.

But where is the level playing field? The private operators were allowed to start mobile services in 1993/94 whereas the PSUs were allowed only in 2000. Afteer helping the private operators thus, the Government is trying to impose more burdens on BSNL and MTNL compared to thee private operators.

 Hence to protect the level playing field, the BSNL and MTNL should be exempted from the one time payment for spectrum for the remaining period of their license.


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