According to the attorney general of India, GE Vahanvati the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on telecom?s proposal asking existing operators to pay the auction determined fee for the remaining period of their 2G licences may not stand the test of legal scrutiny.
The EGoM headed by P Chidambaram, Minister of Finance has EGoM recommended to the government that GSM operators should pay a fee for spectrum held beyond 4.4 MHz, whereas CDMA operators should pay a fee for spectrum in excess of 2.5 MHz.
According to the attorney general of India, EGoM?s reasons for charging this fee to create a level playing field for new entrants and existing players was self contradictory as it violates the sanctity of contracts signed by the government with the existing players.
Earlier, Vahanvati had suggested that only existing GSM operators like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India should pay the auction-determined fee for the additional spectrum and the fee should be charged retrospectively from July 2008.
However, EGoM has recommended that the operators be charged the auction-determined fee for additional spectrum that they hold beyond the 6.2 MHz prospectively.
If EGoM?s recommendations are accepted by the government, then the existing operator?s would have to pay about Rs 270 billion as fee to the government.
