India's Department of Telecom has stated that it has had no hand in the delay of the planned merger between Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, insisting that the department has no intention to delay the deal.
Communications minister Majoj Sinha toldFirstPost that the merger will be cleared immediately after regulator Trai completes all the formalities.
But the department is seeking a legal opinion over whether it can demand that the merged entity pay additional spectrum allocation fees due to the difference in price between the market-allocated price and the price Vodafone paid for an administratively allocated 4.4MHz of spectrum.
Vodafone had been challenging this demand, and now the department is seeking to determine whether the department should demand the fees from Idea Cellular as a result of the merger.