New Delhi July 3 (IANS) Giving a major relief to Reliance Communications (RCOM) the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Tuesday directed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to release the bank guarantee of Rs 2 000 crore given by RCOM under protest in 2016 to secure the payment of one-time spectrum charges (OTSC) in relation to liberalisation of its 800 MHz spectrum.
Apart from the cash payment of Rs 6 600 crore RCOM had also given this Rs 2 000 crore bank guarantee under protest as it had been demanded by DoT and then challenged the demand before TDSAT according to sources.
The TDSAT order will reduce non-funded exposure of banks by Rs 2 000 crore and help in accelerating RCOM s asset monetisation programme for Rs 25 000 crore as was announced earlier.

--IANS ag/vm