It is not immediately clear as to why the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal stayed the government order to raise spectrum charges by one percentage point. The government, according to the news report, has been given four weeks to respond and the industry another two weeks after this to respond to the government reply.
The spectrum charge is a levy that the government is within its powers to put. Going by this logic, companies can challenge even the licence fee or even the existing spectrum fee. The case will have important ramifications.
A Sinha, New Delhi
