Bharti Airtel Clears Spectrum Dues with Rs 3,626 Cr Prepayment

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel on Thursday said it prepaid Rs 3,626 crore to the department of telecom (DoT) to clear all its liabilities for spectrum it had acquired in 2016. With this payment, Bharti Airtel has now prepaid all its spectrum dues that had interest costs higher than 8.65 per cent.

“Bharti Airtel has prepaid Rs 3,626 crore to the Department of Telecom (Government of India) clearing all its liabilities for spectrum it had acquired in 2016. In total, the telecom carrier has prepaid Rs 28,320 crore in spectrum liabilities during this calendar year,” the company said in a statement.

In June, the Sunil Mittal-promoted telecom operator also prepaid all its deferred liabilities for spectrum acquired in the 2012 and 2015 auctions, where the interest rates were higher at 9.75 percent and 10 percent. The prepayment for these auctions amounted to Rs 7,904 crore.

Earlier in the year, Airtel had also prepaid Rs 8,325 crore to the government, clearing part of its deferred liabilities for the spectrum acquired in the 2015 auctions. In 2015, Airtel secured 111.6 Mhz of spectrum for Rs 29,130.20 crore, with an upfront payment of Rs 7,832.58 crore, as per the auction rules at that time.