DoT will not give licences after Oct. 1
The telecom
ministry on Monday decided not to accept any new telecom licence
applications
after
October 1, amidst a sudden rush by companies to seek telecom licences in the country. “It
has been
decided that new applications for Unified (telecom) Access Services (UAS) licences
will not
be accepted by the department of telecommunications (DoT)
after October 1 till further
orders,”
a statement from telecommunication ministry said. Over the last couple of
weeks, the
DoT has
received over 160 applications for Unified Access Services Licences
and in view of
limited
availability of spectrum it may not be possible for DoT
to entertain most of them.
Also Cellular
Operators Association of India (COAI), a lobby of GSM players, has already
written
to DoT asking it to scrutinise
applicants who, it alleged, could be front companies of big
corporates. The promoters behind some of the new
applications with names such as Cheetah,
Bycell,
Swan, S Tel, Datacom Solutions as well as Alliance Infratech are not known. Earlier in
the day,
Union telecom minister A. Raja said: “I have asked the DoT
secretary to form a
committee
to frame guidelines for grant of license to the new applicants. The panel will
work
out
fresh guidelines for the new applicants to get the licences.
All the applications will be
scrutinised and limited applications will be
selected.”
According to
sources the committee would also look into the actual shareholding of the new
applicants
to examine if existing companies were seeking licences
as proxy to bypass laws. On
availability of spectrum in view of the new applicants, Mr
Raja said: “I would be fair to all the
three
categories — existing players who need radio waves for expansion, new players
who
have a licence but have yet to start service in the absence of
spectrum and the new applicants
who are
yet to get licence.”
On the issue
of TRAI’s recommendations that the number of players
in a circle need not be
limited,
Mr Raja said: “We are still evaluating TRAI
recommendations on licensing review. We
will
take the appropriate decision keeping in mind the number of new applicants as
well as the
availability of spectrum.” The rapid growth in the telecom sector has led to
shortage of
spectrum
in large cities.
Source:-www.telecomtrakindia.com
dated
• I-T dept gets HC
notice on Vodafone Essar tax plea
The Bombay High Court has issued a notice
to the income tax department, following a writ
petition by Vodafone Essar
challenging the tax department’s move to levy capital gains tax
following the Vodafone-Hutch deal. This gives tax
authorities an opportunity to present its case
before the court when it hears the petition on
September 27.
The I-T department will attempt to prevent
grant of injunction by the court as a stay would make
it difficult for it proceed further on the
issue. The department is yet to carry out an assessment
of the transaction and books of accounts,
which takes place only after reply in response to
show cause is examined.
Vodafone Essar
had approached the Bombay High Court, challenging the right of the I-T
department to levy capital gains tax on it. The
company had filed the writ after the I-T
department issued it a show cause notice asking it
to explain as to why it (Vodafone Essar
which was formerly Hutchison Essar) should not be treated as an agent of Hutchison
International. Hutchison International had sold a
majority stake in Hutchison Essar to Vodafone
for $11.2 billion.
The court’s decision on September 27
assumes importance as it would set the course for
further action by the department which is
betting big on the case. This is probably the first time
that tax authorities are attempting to tax a
transaction between two foreign companies involving
transfer of an Indian asset. If the tax liability
is established, it could amount to around $1.7
billion.
Hutchison, the seller, would ordinarily
have this liability. However, since the tax authorities do
not have access to Hutchison in
authorities want to treat Vodafone Essar as an agent of the non-resident (Hutchison
International) under Section 163 of the
Income Tax Act, 1961, which is being contested by the
company. The company, in its reply, has pointed
out that since the transaction between
Hutchison International and Vodafone was
structured through
in
Tax authorities are claiming capital
gains under Section 9(1)(i)
of the Income-Tax Act as they
are of the view that the transaction
involved the transfer of an Indian asset for which the
approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion
Board (FIPB) was sought.
The Economic Times
Fresh DoT guidelines for screening licence applications
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided to set up a committee to lay down
guidelines for scrutiny of companies seeking
unified assess service licence (UASL). The
guidelines are expected to be ready in the next ten
days.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Press
conference organised by Mahanagar
Telephone Nigam
Ltd for the launch of low-cost personal
computers, Communications Minister A Raja said, “I
have asked the DoT
to form a panel to frame guidelines for granting licences
to new
applicants. The guidelines will come out within ten
days,” The DoT has fixed October 1 as the
deadline for applying for UASL licence.
Raja said new norms were needed
considering the large number of applicants. About 140
applications are pending for UASL, which enables
companies to provide services across the
country.
Apart from construction companies like
Developers, both of which have applied
for UASL licence, Ruia-controlled
BPL Ltd, Mahendra
Nahata-owned HFCL, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group-backed
Swan, Cheetah Telecom
and S-Tel are among the companies that have
applied for UASL licence.
Also, a bevy of telecom companies that
have already got the licence are waiting for fresh
spectrum to expand. These include Aircel, Spice Telecom and Idea Cellular.
According to a PTI report, Raja said, “All
applications will be scrutinised and limited
applications selected.” DoT
sources said the panel would also look into the shareholding of the
applicants to see if the existing companies were
seeking licences through them.
With around 25 MHz spectrum expected to
be available for 2G operators, there is a race
among the companies to get UASL, which
guarantees a fixed amount of spectrum. Many
analysts say there is a need to separate serious
players from fly-by-night operators, who have
entered the fray to make quick money by trading
in spectrum.
There is also a debate among existing
operators whether 2G spectrum should be auctioned or
given on the basis of the number of
subscribers.
Business Standard
Telecom norms to change
The government is planning fresh
guidelines for the award of telecom licences,
according to
communications minister A. Raja.
“I have asked the DoT
(department of telecommunications) secretary to form a committee to
frame guidelines for grant of licence to new applicants,” said Raja.
The sector has witnessed a rush for licences, following a recent suggestion by the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India to lift the
cap on the number of operators in a circle.
Raja said that a mere background check of
promoters applying for a licence was inadequate.
The DoT also
said that applications for unified access services licences
would not be accepted
after October 1, till the new guidelines are
in place.
A company with a minimum paid-up capital
of about Rs 140 crore and a
net worth of over Rs
1,380 crore is
eligible for a licence.
Officials said the move was not aimed at
disqualifying any player. The purpose was to help the
DoT in obtaining information such as the
details of promoters, proposed foreign direct
investment, funding patterns and the net worth of
applicants.
Raja also said that the award of a licence could be linked to availability of spectrum.
Present
rules offer spectrum free of cost with a licence.
Tata Indicom customer base in Kolkata circle tops a million
Tata Indicom, which
has surpassed a customer base of one million in the Kolkata
Telecom
Circle, hopes to end the current fiscal
with a customer base of 14 lakh in the circle.
Between
now and March, the company has outlined an
investment of Rs 97 crore
in Kolkata, according
to Mr Abhijit Pal, COO, Kolkata Circle,
Tata Teleservices Ltd.
Addressing newspersons at a function held
here today to mark the one million customermilestone
in the
planned for the current fiscal, Tata Teleservices’ cumulative
investment in the circle would go
up to Rs 593 crore by March 2008. Tata Teleservices had launched its CDMA technologybased
telecom services in Kolkata
in January 2005.
The company’s brand ambassador and former
Indian cricket captain, Sourav Ganguly,
was
present at the function to felicitate company
officials on their achievement.
According to Mr
Pal, the number of Tata Indicom
branded stores in the telecom circle would go
up to 203 even as the number of retail
outlets would touch the 10,000-mark by March 2008.
Mr Pal said the company’s cumulative
investment in
crore now to Rs 929 crore by end-March 2008.
Likewise, the cumulative investment in
the eastern region would go up from Rs 1,396 crore at
present to Rs 1,702 crore by
customer base was targeted to go up to 24 lakh in
region, he said.
Business Line