Airtel Pre-Pays Rs 7,904 Crore To Clear Spectrum Dues

Bharti Airtel on Friday said it has prepaid Rs 7,904 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) to clear high-cost deferred liabilities for spectrum acquired in 2012 and 2015.

In a stock exchange filing, the company said that it has fully prepaid all deferred liabilities for the years 2012 and 2015 which were at the highest interest cost of 9.75 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

In January this year, the company prepaid Rs 8,325 crore to the government to clear part of its deferred liabilities for the spectrum it acquired in 2015. In the 2015 auction, Airtel acquired 111.6 MHz of spectrum for Rs 29,130.20 crore and had paid Rs 7,832.58 crore upfront as per the rules. In July last year, Airtel prepaid Rs 8,024 core to clear liabilities for spectrum acquired in 2015.

Airtel had said it continues to enjoy access to a well-diversified source of capital/financing, allowing it to have enhanced financial flexibility in its capital structure, including the optimised cost of financing using all opportunities for significant interest savings, like this prepayment.