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The Supreme Court has reproached the government for its delayed response regarding the issue of additional spectrum held by the service providers offering GSM services to users. It has provided the government two more weeks to submit its view on the matter.
According to a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi, spectrum is a scare public resource and its distribution should be in line with the constitutional ethos. He added that there cannot be any justification for more than a year?s delay on the government?s part in responding to such an important matter.
Singhvi?s comments have come over a petition filed by the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI). According to AUSPI, GSM service providers had been allotted airwaves in excess of the contracted 6.2 MHz of spectrum without having to pay additional spectrum fee. This has resulted in a loss of about
Rs 92.55 billion to the government. AUSPI?s counsel appearing before the Supreme Court has stated that the GSM operators have been using additional spectrum without paying any fee for the last 14 to 15 years. However, the government has directed GSM operators to make payments for the usage of additional spectrum beginning 2008 onwards. Therefore, the government needs to explain inconsistency regarding the matter.
Responding to AUSPI?s claim, lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing GSM operators, stated that an operator like Bharti Airtel had paid Rs 63 billion for the usage of additional spectrum. Since, the government introduced the concept of auction price in 2008, GSM operators are only required to pay spectrum usage charges for a limited period of time.
