The government has issued a bank guarantee of Rs 9,200 crore to Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Geo

Vodafone petitioned the government to resolve the retro tax dispute

New Delhi: The telecom department has issued a total bank guarantee of Rs 9,200 crore to Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio, sources said. The bank guarantee license fee was collected by the telecom companies as spectrum usage charges.

The bank guarantee has been issued under the reform package announced by the Government of India in September. A bank guarantee of Rs 4,000 crore has been issued for Bharti Airtel, Rs 2,500 crore for Vodafone Idea Limited and Rs 2,700 crore for Reliance Jio.

The Department of Telecom had in October reduced the requirement for financial bank guarantee of telecom operators by 80 per cent. Earlier, a bank guarantee of Rs 220 crore had to be paid for a telecom license. Which had now come down to Rs 44 crore.

To this end, the government has researched the rules in this regard. Similarly, telecom operators will now have to deposit a maximum bank guarantee of Rs 8.8 crore per circle. Which was earlier Rs 44 crore. Meanwhile, Britain's giant telecom company Vodafone said today that it has applied to the government for the settlement of a retrospective tax dispute.

Vodafone further stated that it believed in advance that it would not have to pay any taxes. The government amended the law in August to remove the retrospective tax rule. The income tax department had in October 2010 demanded Rs 11,218 crore in taxes from Vodafone.