The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is of the view that the telcos who failed to pay their share of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues by January 23 are in “contempt of court”. It is likely to take this stand when the case will be heard by the Supreme Court, senior officials from the Ministry told The Indian Express. “While the telcos were at liberty to approach the court anytime they wanted to, the deadline for payment of AGR was never extended. That stands at three months from October 24. So in my view, they are in contempt of court,” one of the officials quoted above said. The stand taken by DoT is in contrast to an earlier decision of not pursuing any coercive action against telcos for not paying the AGR dues in time. On January 23, when the three-month SC deadline to pay AGR dues was about to end, the Licensing Finance Policy Wing of DoT had sent out a letter stating that no action should be taken against telcos. The DoT had then also said that any decision on initiating a contempt against the telcos would be taken in due course of time as there was no question of “immediate contempt”. ”Not even once did the companies come to the DoT to sort out the issue. Once the case has gone to the SC, and there is an order from them, there is precious little we can do. The judgment is binding on all,” an official said. Apart from pushing for holding telcos in contempt of SC’s orders, it is also unlikely that the DoT will give them any major relief as far as payment of the dues is concerned. Senior Ministry officials in the know said the decision has been reflected in the Budget for financial year 2020-21. In the Budget for the next fiscal starting April, the government has estimated revenue of Rs 1.33 lakh crore under the ‘other communication services’ head. This amount is nearly 125 per cent higher than Rs 58,989.64 crore mentioned by the government in its revised estimate of 2019-20. The government defines receipts from ‘other communication service’ mainly as license fees from telecom operators and receipts on account of spectrum usage charges. The DoT collects recurring licence fees from various telecom service providers for spectrum usage and the AGR is calculated depending upon the quantum assigned for their network. Most experts have estimated that this higher payout could be a part of the AGR that the government is expecting to receive as soon as it gets appropriate directions from the apex court. Ministry officials in the know said they wanted to push for a part of the payment, which may include the payment of AGR principal, while deferring the penalty and interest on penalty part to the next fiscal. A “concrete decision” on that issue, and whether non-telecom companies will also be asked to pay the entire amounts had, however, not been taken so far, an official said. The SC had, on October 24 last, while upholding DoT’s definition of AGR, given the licensees three months time to pay all the dues which included the principal amount, interest on principal amount, penalty and interest on penalty due to delay in repayment. The three-month deadline ended on January 23, before which the telcos had unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Telecom Department to give them more time to pay the dues. Having failed there, the telcos again approached the apex court seeking a review of the October 24 judgment, which was also turned down. 📢 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines
