The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is likely to approach A.G. Goolam E Vahanvati, Attorney General of India for his views on whether a one-time spectrum fee is to be levied on incumbent telecom operators, says news reports.
The move comes as a result of the Ministry of Law returning the cabinet note on the issue without any comments. DoT wants Vahanvati to share his views on the issue before the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom which would be taking a final decision on the issue.
This is the second time DoT has approached Vahanvati on this subject. However, at the time Vahanvati had refused to share advice on the issue with DoT on grounds that the cabinet note on the same had already been circulated by the government.
Earlier in the year, following the cancellation of 2G licence by the Supreme Court, DoT circulated a cabinet note which proposed charging incumbent telecom operators with one-time licence fee for holding spectrum in excess of 4.4 MHz, for the remaining period of their licences. According to DoT this would create a level playing field for all the telecom players.
However, both the Ministry of Finance and the Planning commission have been opposing DoT?s proposal. They have stated that creating a level playing field for the new players by asking the existing telecom players to pay the auction discovered price for excess spectrum held by them, may not happen as new operators may have access to advanced technologies and software which could translate to higher efficiency and lower costs for them.
