DoT steps up pressure on telcos, seeks details of MD and directors

While it is not clear why the agency has sought these details, DoT officials said this could be in line with the ministry’s move to seek for full payment of adjusted gross revenues (AGR) owed by these companies.

The DoT wants to push for the entire payment of AGR dues from telcos before the March 17 hearing in the Supreme Court. (File Photo)

The Licensing Finance Policy Wing of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked all telecom operators to submit to it the names and correspondence addresses of their respective managing directors and directors. The Indian Express has seen a copy of the letter sent to the telcos.

While it is not clear why the agency has sought these details, DoT officials said this could be in line with the ministry’s move to seek for full payment of adjusted gross revenues (AGR) owed by these companies.

The DoT wants to push for the entire payment of AGR dues from telcos before the March 17 hearing in the Supreme Court. The ministry is currently in the process of internally calculating the dues owed by all companies, and will tally it with the self-assessment reports on AGR submitted by them.

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To reconcile both, DoT had last week written to telcos asking them to submit documents supporting their claims of self-assessed AGR.

This, a senior DoT official had then said, would help them understand how the numbers arrived at by the companies is lower than the assessment of the ministry.

“This exercise will help us run a time-bound check and test for the AGR dues that are being deposited so far. We have asked them to send the supporting documents as soon as possible,” a senior official said.

Of the three major telcos, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm and Sunil Bharti Mittal-led Bharti Airtel have submitted Rs 195 crore, and Rs 18,000 crore, respectively, and have claimed compliance with the SC’s October 24, 2019 judgment on AGR.

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The Supreme Court, had then, upheld the DoT’s definition of AGR and said since the licencees had agreed to the migration packages, they were liable to pay the dues, penalty on dues, and interest on penalty due to delay in payments.

The apex court then gave the telcos three months to clear their AGR dues.

That three-month deadline ended on January 23, before which the telcos unsuccessfully tried to persuade the DoT to give them more time to pay the dues. Having failed there, they again approached the SC seeking a review of the October 24 judgment, which was also turned down.

The telcos had then filed a modification plea before the apex court, seeking its permission to sit down with DoT and negotiate a timeline.

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It was during the hearing of this modification plea on February 14 that the top court had come down heavily on the telcos as well as the Telecom Department for not complying with its orders.

The total payment made by Bharti Airtel is half of the government’s calculations on the AGR dues payable by the company.

The Department has estimated that Bharti Airtel needs to pay more than Rs 36,000 crore as AGR dues.

Reliance Jio, last month, cleared all its AGR-related dues amounting to Rs 195 crore well within the Supreme Court’s January 23 deadline.