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\nThe easing of holding caps will give a boost to M&As and spectrum sales as carriers try to dispose of assets, including airwaves, to repay debt. Extending the payment tenure for auctioned airwaves from 10 years, excluding a two-year moratorium, to 16 years as a one-time measure, will help increase cash flow and give near-term relief to carriers faced with debt of Rs 7.7 lakh crore besides falling revenue and profitability, the government said in a release on Wednesday.
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Telecom<\/a> companies and experts welcomed the relief measures, but said more needs to be done, including lowering levies such as licence fees and spectrum usage charges (SUC) for improving the long-term health of the sector.Government officials however believe the worst is over for the sector, with revenue stabilising.
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\n\"With the restructuring of the deferred payment liability, the cash flow for the telecom service providers will be increased in the immediate time frame providing them some relief,\" the government said. \"The increased installment (period) is based upon the principle that the net present value (NPV) of the payment due is protected as per respective notice inviting application for auction of spectrum from 2012. The total amount received will be higher by Rs 74,446.01crore till 2034-35.\"
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The extension of the payment tenure and the reduction in interest rate on penalties had been proposed by the interministerial group (IMG) set up to propose measures to alleviate stress in the telecom sector<\/a>. The recommendations had fallen short of the expectations of established telcos such as Bharti Airtel, Idea and Vodafone. Reliance Jio Infocomm, on the other hand, had said there was no need for any relief package at all.
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\nThe Cabinet also increased the overall airwaves holding limit to 35% from 25%. Current government rules bar any merged entity from holding more than 25% of the spectrum allocated in a service area or circle, and over 50% in a particular band.
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\n\"Revising the limit for the spectrum cap holding will facilitate consolidation of telecom licences and may encourage participation in future auctions,\" the government said. The changed limits may be revisited after the Final Acts of World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 2019, a global convention which reviews regulations and international pacts around spectrum.
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It endorsed the recommendations of the Telecom Commission<\/a> (TC) headed by telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan to scrap the 50% limit on intra-band spectrum holdings of telcos. Instead, it decided to impose a separate 50% cap on combined spectrum holdings in the 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands (sub-1 GHz bands). However, it's unclear if the Cabinet has accepted another TC recommendation - to lower the interest rate on penalties on outstanding dues of telcos from 14% to 12%.
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\n\"The new spectrum caps will facilitate consolidation in the industry - Jio and RCom, and Idea and Vodafone,\" said Rajan Mathews, director-general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). He, however, added that the extension in spectrum payment tenure will have only a minimal benefit through cash flow relief but total payments will increase.
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\n\"The systemic issues of the industry still remain unaddressed, like excessive taxes and levies of 30% or more. We hope the government will accelerate these relief measures...,\" said Mathews.
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\nMORE NEEDED<\/strong>
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Prashant Singhal, TMT head for emerging markets at EY<\/a>, added that the government could have given more relief, especially in areas such as licence fee, revenue share, GST (goods and services tax), given that the sector is the most taxed and that it is now considered an essential service. He said though that the relaxation of spectrum caps was in line with the ongoing consolidation. The merged Vodafone-Idea entity as well as Bharti Airtel, which is taking over the wireless operations of Tata Teleservices, Telenor and Tikona, stand to gain from the enhanced airwaves caps as the companies would not need to sell or return excess frequencies, as they would no longer run afoul of spectrum cap rules.
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Jio, too, could benefit as it will be able to mop up more airwaves in the 4G-ready 850 MHz band. Jio holds the maximum amount of airwaves in the 850 MHz band across all 22 circles, and the increased caps will give it the leeway to acquire more spectrum from Reliance Communications<\/a>, which still has 70 MHz of the bandwidth. That depends on the Anil Ambani-owned company being able to overturn an arbitration court ruling that bars it from selling its assets.
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\n\"Spectrum caps would help Idea-Vodafone, Airtel and even Jio, if they were to acquire RCom's spectrum,\" said Sanjiv Bhasin, executive vice-president, markets and corporate affairs, at brokerage IIFL. \"It's a shot in the arm, which can help (stock) prices of Bharti Airtel improve, much needed because of the competitive pressures of the ongoing tariff war.\"
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\nBharti Airtel, the country's largest telco, however had opposed removing the 50% cap within a band. The company's chairman Sunil Mittal, in an interview to ET, had said the move to remove the intra-band cap was designed to allow \"one operator\" (read Jio) to hold more than 10 MHz in the lucrative 4G band of 850 MHz.<\/body>","next_sibling":[{"msid":63204992,"title":"Telecom sector needs over 47 lakh more workers by 2022: Manoj Sinha","entity_type":"ARTICLE","link":"\/news\/telecom-sector-needs-over-47-lakh-more-workers-by-2022-sinha\/63204992","category_name":null,"category_name_seo":"telecomnews"}],"related_content":[],"msid":63205237,"entity_type":"ARTICLE","title":"Cabinet approves relief measures for stressed telecom sector","synopsis":"The Cabinet on Wednesday also extended the payments tenure for auctioned airwaves from 12 years, including a two-year moratorium, to 16 years, as a one-time measure, giving much needed relief to carriers reeling under debt burden of more than Rs 7.7 lakh crore.","titleseo":"telecomnews\/cabinet-approves-relief-measures-for-telecom-sector","status":"ACTIVE","authors":[],"Alttitle":{"minfo":""},"artag":"ET Bureau","artdate":"2018-03-07 19:32:05","lastupd":"2018-03-08 10:19:54","breadcrumbTags":["EY","Reliance communications","spectrum sale","Telecom","telecom sector","cabinet","Telecom Commission","IMC2018","policy"],"secinfo":{"seolocation":"telecomnews\/cabinet-approves-relief-measures-for-telecom-sector"}}" data-news_link="//www.iser-br.com/news/cabinet-approves-relief-measures-for-telecom-sector/63205237">