Airtel makes prepayment of ₹8,465 Crore to DoT

30 Sep 2024 , 06:36 PM

On September 30, Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom operator, reported that it has payed ₹8,465 Crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT), settling its postponed dues for the spectrum acquired in 2016.

These dues, with a 9.3% interest rate, were fully repaid ahead of schedule to lower the company’s debt burden and minimise financial costs.

This is not Airtel’s first attempt to streamline its financial commitments. In June 2024, the business prepaid ₹7,904 Crore, resolving all deferred liabilities for spectrum obtained in auctions between 2012 and 2015.

The spectrum from these auctions carried even higher interest rates, at 9.75% and 10%. With these payments, Airtel has entirely cleared its outstanding spectrum liabilities from earlier auctions, resulting in significant interest savings.

In January 2024, Airtel prepaid ₹8,325 Crore to partially satisfy its dues for airwaves acquired in 2015 auction. These deliberate prepayments demonstrate Airtel’s commitment to improve financial performance by reducing high-interest debt.

The decision comes at a time when Airtel is working to strengthen its competitive position in the telecoms market, particularly with the rollout of 5G services.

At around closing, Bharti Airtel was trading 1.23% lower at ₹1,713.35 per piece, against the previous close of ₹1,734.60 on NSE. The counter touched an intraday high and low of ₹1,733, and ₹1,704.20, respectively.

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