Idea Cellular, the Aditya Vikram Birla Group telecom player, said the government is not examining its recent deal to buy 40.8% stake in Spice Communications.
It’s us who need clarity on what the government stand is, says Idea managing director
NEW DELHI: Idea Cellular, the Aditya Vikram Birla Group telecom player, said the government is not examining its recent deal to buy 40.8% stake in Spice Communications.
Rather, things are the other way around —- Idea itself has sought clarity and answers on some issues.
Sanjeev Aga, managing director, Idea, said the company has written as many as three letters to the department of telecommunications (DoT) seeking clarity on licensing and regulatory guidelines in the telecom sector.
At a conference call after the results on Friday, Aga said the company has asked the DoT about their reading of the government guidelines in three letters.
“Whatever the answer, we will abide by it,” he said.
“There’s no question of an examination (of the deal) by DoT. We are the ones asking questions.”
Recent reports have talked of DoT investigating the Idea-Spice deal over alleged violation of the government’s merger guidelines.
According to the government’s guidelines on merger of telecom licences, any permission for merger shall be accorded only after completion of three years from the effective date of the licences.
Also, no operator is allowed to hold dual licences in any telecom circle.
Spice, which operates GSM services in Punjab and Karnataka, was recently given telecom licences in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Maharshtra.
Idea is already present in these circles, thereby triggering the regulatory risk over holding dual licences.
But, according to Idea, the merger with Spice was a “composite transaction”.
After the stake acquisition announcement on June 25, Aga had said that there was no regulatory risk involved.
At another analyst call later, he reiterated: “There’s no legitimate regulatory risk in the deal. But life is uncertain.”
Idea operates in 11 circles currently and has got spectrum for another 5 circles. The company is awaiting spectrum in the remaining circles before it can go national.
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