DoT may fine old telcos for service rollout delay
Jan. 11: After penalising new operators for not rolling out services on time, the telecom ministry may now turn the heat on incumbent players, who are yet to pay Rs 135 crore as liquidated damages for similar lapses.
“Wherever there have been delays in the network roll-out, the liquidated damages to the extent of liability on the account of delays will be levied if not already levied,” the telecom secretary, Mr R. Chandrasekhar, said.
The telecom ministry had earlier proposed imposing a penalty of Rs 477 crore (which was later reduced to Rs 135.60 crore) against Airtel, Tata Teleservices, RCom among others.
The penalty was lowered after several representations by the old operators, who said that roll-out obligations should come into effect from the date of allotment of spectrum and not from the date of issuance of licences. They also claimed that statutory clearances came through late, which caused cascading delays in the rollout of services.
As per the revised figures, Bharti Airtel faces a penalty of `31 crore, while the Tatas (CDMA operations) are likely to be asked to be pay liquidated damages of over `40 crore.
While this remains unpaid, the government has collected more than `110 crore from the new operators against a total demand of `218 crore showing them the stick.
“There is no question of some operators having to pay and some not having to pay, that question doesn’t arise,” Mr Chandrasekhar added.
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