Clear dues before spectrum transfer: SC
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday said that under spectrum trading guidelines, past dues of a telecom operator need to be cleared before the spectrum can be transferred to a new buyer.
Failing this, the liability passes on to the acquirer, said a three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra that is hearing the matter of recovery of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues from bankrupt telecom companies.
In the case of Bharti Airtel, the company should be liable to pay AGR dues of bankrupt Videocon Telecommunications with which it had a spectrum trading pact, Mishra said. “As per trading guidelines, past dues need to be paid before transfer of spectrum. If you don’t pay, Bharti who acquired Videocon spectrum, will have to pay,” he said.
Videocon, which owes over ₹1,300 crore to the government, has sold its access spectrum in the 1,800 megahertz band to Airtel, which owes ₹43,980 crore in AGR dues and is seeking an extended payment period from the SC.
Airtel has also bought the airwaves held by another bankrupt telco Aircel Group, according to Trai. While Aircel owes ₹12,289 crore in AGR dues, Videocon has a liability of ₹1,376 crore. If the court directs telecom companies using spectrum of bankrupt telecos to pay the past dues, both Airtel and rival Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd will be hit hard. Reliance Jio has been using bankrupt Reliance Communications Ltd’s (Rcom) spectrum under a sharing agreement since 2016—the launch year of Jio. Rcom owes ₹25,199 crore, including spectrum usage charges and licence fees.
Senior lawyers Harish Salve, representing Reliance Jio, and Kapil Sibal, for Airtel, told the court on Friday the companies have not received any notice from the department of telecommunications on additional AGR dues to be paid for using spectrum of the bankrupt telcos.the court will hear the matter next on Monday.