New Delhi (SunstarTV Bureau): Supreme Court dismisses plea to recompute or reorganise the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) demanded by the major Telcos, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Tata Telecom services .
In their plea, the telecoms majors had raised the alleged mistakes and errors in calculation in the figure of AGR-related dues demanded ,by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).
To validate its appeal, Vodafone said after computation it dues worth of Rs 1.8 lakh crore, and appealed for correction of arithmetic errors. Bharti Airtel, on the other hand, had claimed duplication, unauthorised payments, and rejected deductions.
The three telecom companies — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Tata Teleservices — had appealed to the Supreme Court to allow them to make installment for AGR payments. Reformed by the DoT, Bharti Airtel owes over Rs 43,000 crore as AGR dues, while Vodafone Idea has a balance payment of more than Rs 50,000 crore.
Last year, the top court had upheld the Government of India’s position on the calculation of statutory liabilities. The Centre had suggested that revenue from non-core businesses should also be included in the annual AGR amount.
Liable with the claim from the DoT, the telcos had appealed to the Supreme Court to provide the option of staggered payments over either 10 or 20 years. Vodafone-Idea had argued that the only way to repay such a outstanding amount is to earn and pay.
Meanwhile, the Solicitor General has informed the Supreme Court that DOT has not pointed any instructions on allowing correction of errors, and the supreme court too, has on three previous occasions, held that the AGR demand cannot be recalculated for such huge outstanding amount.
