The court has directed Fascel to furnish an undertaking on April 9 before the court that it would securitise the balance 80 per cent of its dues within 8 weeks. The DoT is believed to have agreed with the court's order and decided not to challenge it. The civil court had earlier restrained DoT from encashing bank guarantees worth Rs 163 crore of Fascel and fixed April 2 as the next date of hearing in the matter. Fascel has contended that DoT had violated the principles of equality when it rejected its resolve to pay 20 per cent of its licence fee dues.

According to Fascel, even though the operator was consistently tryingto pay its dues to DoT and had even offered to pay up 20 per cent, its bank guarantee had been ordered to be encashed. This guarantee was far in excess of the 20 per cent of the licence fee which the operator had to pay.

According to Fascel, the DoT had taken the decision to encash the bank guarantees despite the company offering to pay-up just a day before the encashment order. Fascel had a total licence fee due of about Rs 288 crore. It already had bank guarantees worth about Rs 163 crore in place. It had to now pay Rs 57.6 crore as 20 per cent of the licence fee dues and furnish bank guarantees worth about Rs 225 crore. As it had already got bank guarantees worth Rs 163 crore, it had to arrange for another Rs 125 crore to achieve its payment schedule to DoT. "We have more or less tied up the balance amount which needs to be securitised and will finalise everything within the deadline set by the court", said a Fascel source.

The dispute between DoT and the telecom industry has hogged the limelight forthe past few weeks. After private telecom private service providers, basic and cellular, refused to pay up their licence fee dues, DoT came out with a formula, which entailed payment of 20 per cent of the dues in cash and furnishing of bank guarantees for the remaining 80 per cent.