Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 88.15 billion to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) towards part-prepayment of deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in auction of year 2015. The prepayment is for instalments due in FY’2027 and FY’2028.
Over the last four months, Airtel has cleared Rs 243.34 billion of its deferred spectrum liabilities much ahead of scheduled maturities. These liabilities carried an interest rate of 10 per cent and have been paid off through a combination of strong free cash generated by business, equity proceeds and significantly lower cost debt of similar tenor.
Earlier, in December 2021, Airtel prepaid Rs 155.19 billion to the DoT, clearing all dues relating to airwaves that it bought in the 2014 auction and thereby saved interest cost of approximately Rs 34 billion. Airtel continues to focus on financial flexibility via its capital structure including optimising cost of financing and capitalising on all opportunities of significant interest saves like this prepayment.
