business
Supreme Court dismisses AGR reconsideration plea of Telecom companies
Telecom companies have suffered a major setback in adjusted gross revenue (AGR). The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the reconsideration petitions of other companies including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea. The court said it did not find any “reasonable reason” to consider the petitions. Now these companies will have to pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore to the government by January 23.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Justice S. Abdul Nazir and Justice MR Shah considered the reconsideration petitions in the Chamber itself, while the companies had requested for open court hearings but the Supreme Court on the tradition of considering such petitions in the Chamber itself Decided to continue the hearing in the Chamber.
The Supreme Court, in its judgment on 24 October 2019, stated that the inclusion of non-revenue from telecom services in the AGR of telecom companies is as per law. On November 22, Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Tata Teleservices filed a review petition. It appealed to reconsider the verdict and waive interest on fines, and penalties.
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Parliament in November last year that the government was owed Rs 1.47 lakh crore by telecom companies. He also said that there is no proposal for relief on penalty-interest on this dues. He had said that telecom companies owed Rs 92,642 crore in license fee and Rs 55,054 crore in spectrum usage charges.
