Airtel moves Delhi HC, seeks Rs 3,000 crore licence fee refund

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel on Monday moved the Delhi High Court, seeking a refund of over Rs 3,000 crore. The issue pertains to a 20-year-old case when Airtel’s licence for Punjab circle was suspended between 1996 and 1998, reports CNBC-TV18’s Ashmit Kumar.

The Department of Telecom had continued to seek a licence fee for the two years and Airtel had argued it isn’t liable to pay the licence fee as it had been blacked out in the Pubjab circle. Airtel had paid Rs 400 crore as licence fee for the period from April 1996 to March 1998.

Further, an arbitration was conducted in which the arbitrator had ruled in favour of the DoT. Following this, in 2012, Airtel had moved Delhi High Court which set aside the order.

Airtel has now argued that the licence fee and accumulated interest over 20 years stands at Rs 2,000 crore. The Delhi High Court has now issued a notice and will take up the matter in September.Watch video for more...