hamper investors' confidence.
"It is submitted that investor confidence and investment environment has already been severly affected. If Letters of Intent, devoid of intent, are issued, it would lead to total chaos," COAI said in a letter to telecom secretary D S Mathur.
According to COAI, the entry fee of Rs 1,651 crore (Rs 16.51 billion) for a pan-India licence, as fixed by the department of telecommunication is for spectrum bundled with license.
"Once the payment is collected by the DoT, then the LoI converts into a licence, which necessarily carries with it an assurance/guarantee of spectrum," it added.
COAI's letter comes in the wake of the government plans to issue LoIs to all 46 applicants for 575 applications but with no guarantee of spectrum immediately.
"This would be absolutely incorrect, arbitrary, illegal and untenable for the government to collect non-refundable fee of Rs 1650
crore from a licensee applicant and give no guarantee for spectrum, which is the resource that the applicant is actually paying for," COAI Director General T V Ramachandran said in the letter.
COAI said existing licensees are being denied their statutory and contractual rights to spectrum. The dual licenses and spectrum proposed to be given on priority basis to select operators is in violation of policy and licensing restrictions, it said.
"The policy changes are carried out in a covert manner without fulfilling the requirements of due process and regard for level playing field," COAI said. New applicants are being asked to pay up Rs 1650 crore with no obligations on the part of the government to part with the privilege or the resources for which the money is being collected, it added.
"It is submitted that nowhere in the world has the important infrastructure of telecom been treated in such a fashion as in recent months," COAI said in its letter, asking DoT to intervene in the issue immediately and stop the process, of issuing of LoIs if it is going on.
