Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd, whose self-assessed dues to the government are less than half of what the Department of Telecommunications estimates, must disclose workings highlighting areas of difference as minority shareholders deserve to know, an analyst report said.
While Bharti Airtel has pegged its dues arising from a Supreme Court ruling that asked for non-telecom revenues to be included in calculating spectrum charges and licence fee at Rs 13,004 crore, the DoT puts the estimate at Rs 35,000 crore.
Stating that there is a case for better disclosures on the math from both the DoT as well as the operators, it said a detailed explanation of the calculations post the closure of the legal proceedings is a must. “It would go a long way in inspiring confidence among the minority investors.”
VIL has so far paid Rs 3,500 crore out of its self-assessed liability of Rs 21,533 crore, while Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 13,004 crore to the government in two installments. It had also deposited an additional Rs 5,000 crore as an ad-hoc payment to cover any reconciliation differences.
“At some level, it is baffling that something as basic and critical as the base of revenues on which as much as 12-13% of sector revenues are paid as regulatory levies stayed a matter of dispute on principles and calculations more than two decades after NTP-1999 was introduced and implemented,” Kotak said.
It hoped that for the sake of minority investors, the telecom policy hereon leaves little room for such material disputes, and even when such disputes arise, they are settled in a more time-bound and reasonable manner.
“Regulatory certainty, at the very least confidence in no regulatory shocks, is a must for healthy investor sentiments in any regulated sector,” it noted.
“We do not have sufficient details to be sure of why the divergence. We do believe, however, that operators would have been extra cautious in their math given the Supreme Court’s tough stance on the matter,” the report said.
