Bye, says Loop, but sends govt a Rs 2,800 cr demand

New Delhi: The bills for the telecom scam are coming due one by one.

Thanks to the cancellation of 122 licences issued by Andimuthu Raja by the Supreme Court, the government is now facing demands for compensation from licensees who now are back to square one.

Soon after Telenor, majority partner in Uninor, claimed unspecified damages from the government, it is now the turn of Loop Telecom. Loop lost 21 licences in the Supreme Court verdict of 2 February and has now decided to call it quits by 1 June this year.

However, Firstpost learns that Loop has written to the Department of Telecom (DoT) for a refund of about Rs 2,800 crore. “They (Loop) have said that about Rs 1,500 crore was the entry fee, another Rs 800 crore was invested in bank guarantees and Rs 500 crore was invested in the business. They have already sought these refunds”.

This letter, written last month, will now be followed by another communication where Loop will specify the damages it would seek, over and above Rs 2,800 crore.

Just last week, Loop informed its 6,000 subscribers that it will cease services from 1 June and that they should port to other mobile service providers. All Loop customers, barring those in Mumbai, which is covered by a separate licence, need to port out. The Mumbai licence was awarded to a different company (Loop Mobile India) and was not impacted by the SC judgement.

The withdrawal of Loop’s services will impact subscribers in Haryana, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan and some other states. Loop Telecom has about a 150 employees and they have also been told to look for alternatives, now that the company has to comply with the Supreme Court judgement.