SC reserves order on AGR dues; rules out recalculation as Airtel, Vodafone demand 15 yrs

Amid the ongoing debt woes of the telecom industry, the Supreme Court, on Monday reserved its order on a timeline for payment of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues. While private players Vodafone-Idea and Bharti Airtel agreed to a 15-year time to pay its dues, the Centre allowed a 20-year period. The court has ruled out recalculation of AGR dues and has ordered all documents of telecom insolvencies and pending AGR dues in 10 days, as per reports. Next hearing is scheduled on August 10.

Vodafone Idea pays Rs 1,000 crore to DoT towards AGR dues, aggregate stands at Rs 7,854 Cr

SC reserves order on AGR dues

The Department of Telecom (DoT) had sought the SC's approval to allow the telcos pay their AGR dues of Rs 1.69-lakh crores over 20 years - a staggered payment. This will help debt-ridden telecoms like Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices spread their AGR dues over a longer period of time, rather than do a one-time payment leading to insolvencies like Reliance Communications, Aircel, Videocon and Sistema Shyam. Telcos - Vodafone Idea and Airtel have reportedly suggested a period of 15 years, while Tata Teleservices asked for 7-10 years.

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Telcos pay up AGR dues

Earlier on Saturday, Vodafone Idea paid a further sum of Rs 1,000 crore to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) towards AGR dues over its earlier deposit of Rs 6,854 crore in three tranches. It still owes Rs 58,254 crores to the DoT. Meanwhile, Airtel has paid Rs 18,004 crore to DoT till date, and it's yet to pay Rs 25,976 crore. On the other hand, Reliance Jio Infocomm became the only phone company to meet the Supreme Court’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues deadline, paying Rs 195 crore in January 2020.

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SC's 2019 order on AGR dues 

On October 2019, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Centre allowing the DoT to recover Rs 92,641 crore in total adjusted gross revenue (AGR) from telecom operators in India. The telcos pay the licence fee and spectrum usage charges (SUC) on AGR which amount to Rs 92,641 crores. The SC ruled that the DOT's claims on the definition of AGR as well as the applicability of interest, penalty and interest on penalty are both valid and that the operators are liable to pay 100 per cent of the demand that DoT has raised.

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