The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has amended the unified access services licence to defer payments of spectrum auction instalments due for 2020-21 and 2021-22.
With this, DoT operationalises the committee of secretaries’ decision to allow a two-year moratorium.
As per DoT, the licensee may opt to defer the spectrum auction instalment due for 2020-21 and 2021-22, either for one or both years. The deferred amount will be equally spread over the remaining instalments to be paid, without any increase in the time specified for making the instalment payments. Interest shall be charged to protect the net present value (NPV) of the payable amount.
Further, it added that the licensee opting for deferred spectrum instalments will continue to securitise the next payable annual instalment by a financial bank guarantee (FBG) of an amount equivalent to the revised annual instalment. A licensee opting for a two-year deferment shall provide to the licensor an FBG of the revised annual instalment amount payable in 2022-23, valid for the entire two-year duration of the deferment.
