Airtel prepays ₹8,024 cr in spectrum fees
NEW DELHI : Bharti Airtel Ltd on Tuesday prepaid ₹8,325 crore to the government to clear part of its deferred liabilities for the spectrum it acquired in 2015, the carrier said in a statement to the exchanges. India’s No. 2 telecom services provider said the advance payments would help it save costs.
It did not state when the payments were due. On Tuesday, Bharti Airtel’s stock rose 3.2% to ₹1,159.2 on BSE. In the auctions of 2015, Airtel acquired 111.6 MHz of spectrum for ₹29,130.20 crore.
It had paid ₹7,832.58 crore upfront as per the rules at that time. The Sunil Mittal-promoted voice and data services provider bought spectrum in previous auctions for which liabilities were due in annual instalments from 2026-27 to 2031-32, and carried an interest rate of 10% and an average residual life of more than seven years. In 2023, Airtel prepaid ₹8,024 crore in July and ₹8,815 crore in March, before the due dates for 2026-27 and 2027-28 for the same airwaves.
The carrier is yet to pay the dues in full; Airtel executives said in an earnings call last November that ₹10,000-12,000 crore dues were yet to be paid for spectrum bought in 2015 auctions. In the 2014 auctions, Airtel bought 128.4MHz spectrum for ₹19,051 crore including spectrum belonging to Telenor’s India unit. In September 2021, the government gave telcos the flexibility to prepay deferred liabilities as part of a rescue package.
The package also included a four-year spectrum payment moratorium, the option to convert interest on the spectrum and other dues to the government into equity, and reduced bank guarantees. Companies such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd are using cheap finance to clear high-cost liabilities and refinance loans. Airtel earlier
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