The Department of telecom (DoT) has asked Idea Cellular to surrender one of the two telecom licences it holds for the circles of Punjab and Karnataka. Idea Cellular, which had acquired a controlling stake in Spice Communications for around Rs 2,700 crore in June, now holds two licences in these circles on account of this acquisition. The DoT, however, ruled out any move to refund the licence fees paid by Idea after it surrenders the licences.

“The policy is very clear. What will one do with two licences? You need just one to offer the service. Obviously, Idea has to return one licence (in each circle) but there wouldn’t be any refund for this,” telecom secretary Sidhharth Behura said on Monday. With DoT ruling a refund, Idea stands to lose about Rs 300 crore.

Last week, Idea Cellular in a communication to DoT had offered to surrender the licences issued to it in January 2008 for Punjab and Karnataka. In this scenario, the company has said that DoT must refund the Rs 300 crore it has paid as entry fee for its licences in these circles. Giving up these licences will not impact Idea’s operations in these two circles — this is because, it will continue to have a presence in these circles via Spice Communications, which is currently being merged with Idea. Idea can therefore give up its licenses in these two circles.

Similarly, in January, Spice was awarded mobile licences in four circles — Delhi, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Idea has also indicated that it is willing to demerge or surrender the licences for these circles that were awarded to Spice. Here again, the move to give up the licences that were formerly held by Spice will not have an impact on Idea Cellular. This is because, Idea already has full-fledged mobile operations in all these circles.