India
Updated : Dec 27, 2014, 05:50 AM IST
The committee reviewing spectrum usage charges for government's captive use has recommended waiving off the late fee component of around Rs 363.57 crore on "legacy networks", authorised between 2004 and 2014, of the State Police Organisation (SPO) and the Central Paramilitary Force (CPMF).
This, it said, would be applicable only on clearance of all their dues towards spectrum royalty charges and licence fee within six months.
The committee, however, has suggested that the current method of calculating spectrum royalty, which was based on total operational area of the movable network, should be continued. It also said that this method of computing the spectrum charge should be uniformly applied to all captive wireless users operating in the same frequency band, irrespective of whether it was government, public sector undertaking (PSU) or private user.
It has also increased the time limit within which the spectrum charges can be paid by users from 30 days to 60 days.
The reason cited by the committee for withdrawing the penalty on delayed payment of the two government organisations was the "cumbersome" reconciliation process for their networks, where the authorisation was issued before 2004.
"The late fee component from the spectrum charges conveyed towards the reconciled assignments issued to SPOs and CPMF against authorisations made prior to 01.06.2004 may be considered to be withdrawn as charges were intimated later after 2008, and in such cases late fee my not be applicable," said the committee report.
It was of the opinion that the pending reconciliation of 15 SPOs for frequency authoritsations prior to 2004 needs to be completed in a "time-bound manner".
For this, the committee has suggested setting up regional licensing offices (RLOs) with supporting staff to ease the workload of Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) wing.
The total spectrum usage charge of SPOs during the period of 2004-2012 was Rs 130 crore and for CPMF it was Rs 33.28 crore. Of its total dues, the SPOs have paid Rs 61.91 crore and the CPMF Rs 38.94 crore.