'Not a single telecom company contributed a penny to COVID:' SC on AGR dues

In what comes as a small relief to telecom companies, Supreme Court today stated that it will reconsider providing m with more time to pay ir pending Annual Gross Revenue (AGR) dues. Meanwhile, Supreme Court also directed Centre to reconsider demanding dues from various Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) calling it a "misuse" of Supreme Court judgment on issue.

Various telecom companies including Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Tata have been asked to file affidavits to show how y propose to complete payment of dues amounting to over Rs. 1.5 lakh crores.

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta arguing before Supreme Court bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Abdul Nazeer and MR Shah stated before Supreme Court that demanding entire amount from telecom companies in one go "might disrupt telecom services with some operators shutting down operations".

In light of this, Solicitor asked Supreme Court to allow setting up of a timeline to allow companies to pay pending dues.

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'Consumer will finally suffer'

Mehta went on to say that an upfront payment from all companies in one go will versely impact telecom sector in such a way that " consumers will finally suffer". bench, at this point, raised concerns on what guarantee exists to say that companies will ensure due payment in tune with timeline. In this regard, bench asked if telecom companies were rey to give an undertaking before top court to state that payments will be me on time.

bench also raised questions on how Centre h raised a demand for dues against various PSUs.

" demands were me for 30 years, but orders were issued after our judgement," Justice Mishra said. se demands are "wholly impermissible" Supreme Court said.

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bench also asked telecom companies if y h me any contribution towards fight against COVID in time of pandemic. Several companies including Airtel, Vodafone-idea and Tata stated that y h contributed crores of rupees to PM Cares Fund. Kapil Sibal, who was representing Airtel, told Supreme Court that as part of ir CSR Fund, Airtel h contributed Rs. 100 crores to PM Cares Fund.

Supreme Court has journed matter until next Thursday.

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