Bharti Tele seeks refund of licence fees

T he Bharti group has dragged the government to the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal seeking a refund of Rs 135 crore, the entry fee paid by the company for acquiring licence for providing basic services after migrating to the unified access regime.

Fearing a "snowballing" effect of this case, the department of telecommunications has sent a letter to the department of legal affairs seeking approval of empanelment of three senior advocates and has also clarified that entry fee is non-refundable.

"Because of regulatory changes, our basic telecom licences have become redundant and therefore we are seeking refund of the entry fee paid by the company," a Bharti executive said, while confirming that the company had moved the tribunal against the government's decision not to refund the money.

The government had approved the requirement of a unified access service licence as per a decision of the Cabinet in October, 2003.The detailed guidelines envisaged "voluntary" migration of the existing basic and cellular service providers to the unified access regime, one of DoT's communication said.

"The government has already taken a decision that since the entry fee is non-refundable there is no case for any refund as well as any compensation for a change of policy, which is a prerogative of the government," it said.

However, the department considers this as "sensitive matter" that may lead to similar court cases whereby the government may have to return huge amounts as compensation to operators .

The company emphasised that it was entitled to the refund as the migration to the unified access regime was a regulatory demand as one could now offer different access services under the common licence.

Since Bharti has been offering basic as well mobile services in the same circles before the unified access regime came into effect, after migration the basic service licence of Bharti became redundant as they moved to the single licence under which they could offer both the services.

Even telecom regulator Trai has floated a consultation paper seeing views from the industry on how to handle similar situations. However, no decision been taken by Trai as yet.

Bharti also claimed that there were no more players seeking refunds in this case.