Bharti Airtel announced on Tuesday that the telecom operator prepaid Rs 8,325 crore or approximately $1 billion to the Department of Telecom (DoT) towards partial prepayment of the deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in the 2015 auction.

The company said in an exchange filing dated January 23 that part prepayment of the deferred liabilities was at an interest cost of 10%

The Sunil Mittal-led company won 111.6 MHz of spectrum worth Rs 29,129.08 crore in the auctions held in March 2015. The company had paid Rs 7,832.20 crore upfront as per the rules. 

Airtel subsequently made two prepayments of Rs 8,815 crore and Rs 8,024 crore in March 2022 and July 2023, respectively. Bharti Airtel said in a November 2023 investor meeting that it has yet to pay dues worth Rs 10,000-12,000 crore for spectrum acquired through auctions in 2015.