The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has dismissed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s (TRAI) recommendation on charging operators a uniform spectrum usage charge (SUC) of 3 per cent. According to DoT, the current slab-based SUC regime cannot be replaced by another regime as the terms of the notice inviting applications (NIA), contracts and bindings between the government and telecom service providers cannot be changed by the government.
DoT states that there is no provision of making changes in the SUC charges levied on operators holding broadband wireless access (BWA) licences. It has further asserted that in 2010, bidders had finalised the auction price based on the SUC prescribed in the NIA for the BWA spectrum auction. Therefore, increasing SUC after three years of auction will be in violation of the contract.
Currently, SUC varies from 3-8 per cent depending on the spectrum held by operators. Incumbent operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, which hold more spectrum pay SUC of up to 8 per cent.
Earlier, the Telecom Commission had stated that TRAI?s suggestion of adopting a uniform SUC rate of 3 per cent could not be implemented immediately owing to legal implications of the move. In addition, an internal committee of DoT noted that a uniform SUC could not be implemented, as revenue from auctioned and non-auctioned spectrum could not be separated.
