The Empowered Group of Ministers(EGoM) headed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, has cleared the proposal to relax spectrum-sharing rules for telecom companies.
It has decided that telecom companies will be allowed to share airwaves after they pay the one-time spectrum charge. The panel also decided to do away with a provision for a special levy on mergers and acquisitions.
In case of Government owned PSUs such as for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Centre would bear the cost for the one-time spectrum charge.
The cost for central government is estimated to be around 12,000 crore rupees.
In response to EGoM’s decision to levy a one-time fee prospectively on all airwaves held by telecom companies beyond the 4.4 MHz mark, BSNL and MTNL both had approached the telecom department stating their inability to pay up this amount.
The Department of Telecommunications in turn had forwarded their case to the panel of ministers on spectrum and the latter has now asked the department to submit a separate proposal on this issue to the Cabinet.
Today’s decision has come as a big relief to telecom players as not only government has relaxed rules for spectrum sharing but also done away with special levy for M&A.
Shares of Bharti Airtel closed at 269.65 down marginally from previous days close on NSE.
