The Department of Telecommunication (‘DoT’) has, on February 5, 2020, amended the ‘Unified Access Services License Agreement’ and the ‘Unified License Agreement’ to enable the licensees to defer the spectrum auction instalment due for the years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, either for one or both the years. The deferred amount is required to be equally spread over the remaining instalments to be paid by the relevant licensee, without any increase in the existing time period specified for making instalment payments. A licensee opting for a: (a) one year deferment, is required to continue to securitize the next payable annual instalment by way of a financial bank guarantee (‘FBG’) of an amount equivalent to the revised annual installment; and (b) two year deferment, is required to provide the FBG of the revised annual instalment amount payable in the year 2022-2023 which will be valid for the entire two year duration of deferment.