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In a bid to find a compromise between warring telecom operators, the Telecom Commission on Monday proposed to collect a minimum 3 per cent of operators’ annual revenues as spectrum usage charge (SUC).
The earlier formula proposed by the Commission was based on weighted average of the spectrum holding by individual operators. This gave an advantage to some of the newer players as their levy worked out to be about 2.5 per cent while incumbent operators had to pay 3-4 per cent of revenues. While the Telecom Commission has proposed to continue with the weighted average formula, the 3 per cent floor would mean that the gap between incumbent operators like Airtel and newer player such as Reliance Jio would be smaller. “By fixing a floor, we have ensured that the overall revenue for the exchequer goes up as well as level playing field between operators is maintained,” said a telecom department official.
The DoT is expected to send the recommendations at the earliest to the Cabinet so that the auctions, to be held in September, get underway.
The Cabinet had earlier decided to send back the issue to TRAI because of a difference in opinion between the DoT and the regulator. While the TRAI suggested a flat fee, it also proposed to include revenue earned from the spectrum band to be factored in while calculating the levy.
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