Mumbai, Feb 4 (IANS) Upholding the Reliance Communications (RCOM) petition against the Department of Telecom (DoT) on one-time spectrum charge issue, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has asked the DoT to return the Rs 2,000 crore bank guarantee to the company.

The appellate tribunal ruled that any telecom operator's spectrum holding upto 5 MHz (megaheartz) in the CDMA band and upto 6.2 MHz in the GSM band were exempt from 'One time spectrum charge' (OSTC) levies, an RCOM spokesperson said.

"TDSAT also directed the DoT to return Reliance Communications' Bank Guarantee (BG) of Rs 2,000 crore, as per its earlier order passed on July 3, 2018," the spokesperson said.

In July 2018, the TDSAT had directed DoT to release the bank guarantees that RCom had provided in 2016 for the spectrum.

--IANS rrb/vd