Jagmohan rules out sops to telecom operators

February 2: Communications minister Jagmohan has ruled out any relief to private basic and cellular telecom operators from payment of out...

February 2: Communications minister Jagmohan has ruled out any relief to private basic and cellular telecom operators from payment of outstanding licence fee of Rs 750 crore by February 15.

Jagmohan said that operators, who failed to pay up the dues in time, quot;will have to face the consequencesquot;. The minister8217;s reiteration of this tough stance comes close on the heels of the the announcement made by Association of Basic Telecom Operators ABTO and Cellular Operators of India COAI over their inability to pay the licence fee by the February 15 deadline. The two associations are planning to seek prime minister8217;s intervention.

However, help is unlikely to come their way, with the prime minister8217;s office and finance ministry in total agreement with the minister8217;s decision.

Jagmohan has taken a light view of the operators demand for concessions, stating that, quot;all operators had entered into proper legal agreements with the Government and had agreed to pay the fees.quot;

quot;There is no question of changing therules of the game, as it will violate the sanctity of the tender agreement,quot; he added. The minister has taken a firm stand on the issue only after detailed consultations with a variety of experts including the attorney general Soli J Sorabjee.

The DoT had recently issued an order asking basic and cellular operators to pay up 25 per cent of their outstanding dues by February 15 and securitise the rest as bank guarantees.

The operators together owe Rs 3,000 crore to the Government in licence fee, with four metro cell operators alone accounting for close to Rs 330 crore.

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The DoT notice despatched to operators on January 25 clearly states that quot;appropriate actionquot; will be taken against those who fail to pay up before the deadline.

Industry associations are petitioning the Centre to wait till the telecom policy is announced on March 31. However, the minister contends that the issue of outstanding licence fees is not related to the new policy. He pointed out that any deviation from the licence-feeconditions will be a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.

ABTO and COAI now plan to approach the highest levels of Government over the DoT order, which they contend, quot;contradicts prime minister8217;s assurance to telecom operators that there problems will be looked into by the task force on telecom.quot;