Telecom service providers owe the government Rs 39,800 crore in terms of outstanding amount for spectrum usage charges, licence fees, penalties and interest, according to a news report published in The Hindu.

Public sector telecom operator BSNL owes the government the maximum amount in terms of total outstanding spectrum charges i.e. Rs 6,979.59 crore. Also, total outstanding licence fee, including interest and penalties of BSNL is Rs 3,044.91 crore, as per the official data.

Minister of state for telecom and IT Milind Deora, while replying to a query in the Lok Sabha, said notices had been issued to the telecom service providers after completion of assessment to recover outstanding dues.

BSNL is followed by Bharti Airtel, which owes the government Rs 6,075.28 crore as spectrum charges and Rs 2,803.50 crore as licence fee, including interest and penalties.

Other private companies Vodafone and Idea owe Rs 4,477.19 crore and Rs 2,206.09 crore as spectrum charges, respectively. Their outstanding in terms of licence fee, including interest and penalties, stood at Rs 459.50 crore and Rs 425.93 crore, respectively.

On the other hand, CDMA service provider Reliance Communication and Tata Teleservices owe Rs 2,004.35 crore and Rs 1,400.43 crore as spectrum charges, respectively.

In terms of licence fee, including interest and penalties, Reliance Communication’s outstanding stood at Rs 1,861.07 crore, and that of Tata Teleservices stood at Rs 354.31 crore.

The minister added that the department of telecom was not considering any proposal to reduce penalties on erring service providers.