Bharti Airtel prepays ₹8,325 crore to clear deferred liabilities for 2015 spectrum acquisition

livemint.com:

₹8,325 crore to the telecom department towards part prepayment of the deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired at the 2015 auction. The telecom company had won the spectrum worth ₹29,129.08 crore at the auctions that were held in March 2015. It had paid ₹11,374.7 crore, while the upfront amount due was ₹7,832.20 crore.

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel “has prepaid Rs. 8,325 crores to the Department of Telecom (Government of India) towards part prepayment of the deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in auction of year 2015 which were at an interest cost of 10%," the telecom company said in a stock exchange filing. Shares of Bharti Airtel closed at ₹1,157.10, up 2.97%, on the NSE on Tuesday.

According to TRAI data, Airtel's wireless subscriber gain of 3.52 lakh pushed up the telco's user tally to 37.81 crore in October2023. On January 8, Bharti Airtel had said that it received a notice from the telecom department for an alleged violation of subscriber verification norms, entailing a penalty of ₹3.57 lakh. The telecom operator said that the notice pertains to Bihar LSA and was received on January 8, 2024.