PM extends telecom fee deadline

February 18: In a late night development yesterday, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee decided to ignore the recommendations of Communic...

February 18: In a late night development yesterday, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee decided to ignore the recommendations of Communications Minister Jagmohan, and extended the deadline for telecom operators who had to pay their licence fee dues. While Jagmohan had insisted that all operators pay a part of their dues by February 15, the Prime Minister has given them up to March 31 to pay Rs 700 crore, which is a fifth of their total outstandings.

After the PM cleared the file, PMO today sent the order to the Department of Telecommunications DoT. However, Jagmohan, obviously unhappy about this directive from the PMO, has still not passed on the order to the department to execute. He has instead sought an appointment with the PM this afternoon, to explain to him why the operators should not be given any further extension beyond February 15.

The PM, however, has not met Jagmohan, and is unlikely to meet him tomorrow either as he will be busy with the National Development Council NDC tomorrow. It isnot clear whether the meeting would be organised even on Saturday as the PM is scheduled to leave for his visit to Pakistan that afternoon.

Strong lobbying by private telecom companies with the Prime Minister8217;s Office seems to have finally succeeded in earning them a reprieve from licence fee payments for the timebeing, unless Jagmohan can convince the PM to the contrary.

The PM8217;s order has come as a surprise to the DoT which had scored a minor victory by getting 12 out of 27 companies paying up almost Rs 54 crore by February 15 which was the deadline set by the DoT for these payments in their letters issued to operators on January 25.

While operators had been pushing for an extension of this deadline right from the time the DoT issued letters, often using the PMO to pressurise the DoT. Jagmohan had, however, stuck to his stand and refused to budge.

Jagmohan, being very vocal all this while about his commitment to recover the pending dues has suddenly retreated into a shell and refused to comment onthe PM8217;s new directive. He said 8220;official notings on files could not be disclosed to the press till a final decision is reached.8221; Sources in the DoT however say that the minister is likely to take up the issue again with the PM before officially extending the deadline.