CourtMesh

Section 35ABA: Expenditure for obtaining right to use spectrum for telecommunication services

The Income-tax Act, 1961Central Act · Act 43 of 1961

Repealed. This text is published for reference. It is not in force, and it should not be relied on as current law without checking what replaced it. Repealed by the Income-tax Act, 2025, with effect from 1 April 2026

Expenditure for obtaining right to use spectrum for telecommunication services.

(1) In respect of any expenditure, being in the nature of capital expenditure, incurred for acquiring any right to use spectrum for telecommunication services either before the commencement of the business or thereafter at any time during any previous year and for which payment has actually been made to obtain a right to use spectrum, there shall, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of this section, be allowed for each of the relevant previous years, a deduction equal to the appropriate fraction of the amount of such expenditure.

(2) The provisions contained in sub-sections (2) to (8) of section 35ABB, shall apply as if for the word "licence", the word "spectrum" had been substituted.

(3) Where, in a previous year, any deduction has been claimed and granted to the assessee under sub-section (1), and, subsequently, there is failure to comply with any of the provisions of this section, then,—

(a) the deduction shall be deemed to have been wrongly allowed;

(b) the Assessing Officer may, notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, re-compute the total income of the assessee for the said previous year and make the necessary rectification;

(c) the provisions of section 154 shall, so far as may be, apply and the period of four years specified in sub-section (7) of that section being reckoned from the end of the previous year in which the failure to comply with the provisions of this section takes place.

Explanation.—For the purposes of this section,—

(i) "relevant previous years" means,—

(A) in a case where the spectrum fee is actually paid before the commencement of the business to operate telecommunication services, the previous years beginning with the previous year in which such business commenced;

(B) in any other case, the previous years beginning with the previous year in which the spectrum fee is actually paid,

and the subsequent previous year or years during which the spectrum, for which the fee is paid, shall be in force;

(ii) "appropriate fraction" means the fraction, the numerator of which is one and the denominator of which is the total number of the relevant previous years;

(iii) "payment has actually been made" means the actual payment of expenditure irrespective of the previous year in which the liability for the expenditure was incurred according to the method of accounting regularly employed by the assessee or payable in such manner as may be prescribed.

Where this provision sits

ActThe Income-tax Act, 1961
Section35ABA
Marginal noteExpenditure for obtaining right to use spectrum for telecommunication services
JurisdictionCentral
StatusRepealed

Find the provision, not just read it

The full text above is free, and it stays free. What a free CourtMesh account adds is everything you cannot do by reading one page at a time:

  • Search 49,000+ Central and State enactments by what a provision says, not by its number
  • Jump from any section to every judgment that has applied it
  • Search 300 million+ Indian court records alongside the statute
  • Ask a research agent to find and read the case law on a provision for you

Free account. No card. About a minute to create.

Create a free account

Need this as data, not as a page? The Income-tax Act, 1961 is one of 49,000+ enactments on CourtMesh. The Indian court cases API serves the case law that cites these provisions over JSON, with API documentation and plans and pricing. See also the judgment library.