DoT to Put Demand of Rs 15,000 Crore in Charges from Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices for Merger Clearance

The data tariff war kick-started by Reliance Jio started a consolidation stream in the industry. As a result, many companies shut operations, and a lot of merger and acquisitions happened. After the significant M&A of the Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Tata Tele Services are the next to go through a similar ordeal. In a new update, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has announced that Bharti Airtel and Tata Tele Services will have to pay around Rs 15,000 crore combined to obtain clearance for the merger deal. These charges will be for spectrum usage charge (SUC) and one-time spectrum charge (OTSC) as a pre-condition for the M&A.

  • Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
  • Source of Google
  • Source of Google

Bharti Airtel,Tata Teleservices,Airtel Tata Teleservices Merger,Airtel Subscriber Base,DoT,Department of Telecommunications

Bharti Airtel and TTSL Merger – Pending Clearance from DoT

As per an ET Telecom report, an official person aware of the development said, “Airtel and TTSL have to pay around Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 2,800 crore, respectively, as SUC.” He further added, “Then there is another Rs 2,000 crore of OTSC that transferee firm Airtel will have to pay in the form of bank guarantees to the government.”

It is worth noting that Bharti Airtel, led by Sunil Bharti Mittal is the second number telco in India and currently TTSL is a loss-making telco in the industry. In their merger deal, both the companies have obtained clearance from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). In this merger, Bharti Airtel will acquire Tata Sons-promoted carrier’s consumer mobility business under a debt-free, cash-free deal. Currently, both the telcos are waiting for final approval from the DoT.