Telecom Bundle: Bharti to not avail possibility of changing curiosity on dues to fairness

After availing the choice of the four-year moratorium on cost of adjusted gross income (AGR) and spectrum dues, Bharti Airtel on Friday instructed the Division of Telecommunications (DoT) that it’ll not go for conversion of the curiosity element into fairness. Below the telecom reforms bundle introduced in September 2021, operators had the choice to supply fairness to the federal government in lieu of the curiosity a part of the dues.

“…We want to inform you that the corporate has confirmed to DoT that it’ll not avail the choice of conversion of the curiosity on deferred spectrum and AGR dues into fairness,” Bharti stated in a regulatory submitting.

Vodafone Thought, which has additionally opted for the moratorium supply, is but to take a call on the choice of conversion of the curiosity into fairness half.
The DoT had issued a notification to telecom operators on October 14, searching for to know their choices round moratorium and fairness conversion.

Telcos got 90 days to substantiate whether or not they can be choosing paying the curiosity which accrues on account of the deferral by the use of providing fairness to the federal government.

Bharti Airtel on October 25 final 12 months had knowledgeable DoT about its acceptance of the four-year moratorium.

Earlier in an interview with FE, Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal had stated the corporate would get a money move aid of about Rs 35,000-40,000 crore by choosing the four-year AGR and spectrum cost moratorium.

Relating to the clause that operators have the choice to pay the curiosity quantity in fairness, he had stated the board would determine on the matter. “Within the case of Airtel the full quantity of curiosity is Rs 7,500 to Rs 10,000 crore,” he had stated.

The moratorium was a part of the federal government’s revival bundle for the telecom sector, which supplied a mix of money move aid for the financially careworn operators in addition to long-term measures like redefinition of AGR and scrapping of spectrum utilization cost in future auctions.