By IT Correspondent
New Delhi/ Mumbai, July 21:
The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday reprimanded telecom companies including “Vodafone India” of Aditya Birla group for their failure to pay pending dues of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) to the Department of Telecom (DoT) and posted the matter for next hearing on 10 August 2020.
A three-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and MR Shah, while hearing the pleas by telecom companies to allow staggered repayment of their AGR, observed that there can be no going back on AGR dues and said the calculation given by the telecom department is to be treated as final, adding that there is no scope for any re-assessment or re-calculation of said dues.
It also said that it wants to look into the bonafide of the decision to invoke insolvency on the part of several companies with AGR dues of over Rs 38,000 crore, that are currently in liquidation. Accordingly, it asked RComm, Videocon and Aircel to submit all records and details of insolvency within seven days. Issue of companies under liquidation is to be considered on 19 August.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that there is no confusion about the SC Order and no room for re-assessment. As per DoT, Bharti Airtel owes a sum of Rs 43,780 crore, of which the company has paid Rs 18,004 crore, so the balance is Rs 25,976 crore. Vodafone paid Rs 7,854 crore, balance is Rs 50,399 crore. Tata Telecom paid about Rs 4,197 crore, balance due about Rs 12,601 crore.
Mukul Rohatgi, Counsel for” Vodafone Idea” told the court that entire net worth of the company has been wiped out over the last 15 years and an equity of over one lakh crore brought in by promoters, has also been eroded. All the revenue was spent on liabilities, tax and other dues. Total revenue of over 10 years was Rs 6.27 lakh crore, of which Rs 4.95 lakh crore was spent on expenses. Now no assets were left with company, except “spectrum”. Under the circumstances, the refund of Goods and services tax (GST) worth Rs 8,000 crore accruing to the company can be retained by the government.
However the bench said that “ We want to make clear again that there is no space for self assessment. Otherwise we will have to draw serious contempt against everyone. This would be a violation of our orders. It seems the DOT is allowing room for re-assessment. Who in the Govt has the temerity to do this? No one has the authority to overturn our orders. You don’t know me, we will despatch people to jail from here.”
Total AGR dues and repayments so far: As per DoT estimates, telecom companies owe a total of Rs 1.19 lakh crore with payments received so far at Rs 26,896 crore. The balance, therefore, is currently at Rs 92,520 crore. AGR dues for Vodafone Idea: outstanding dues as per DoT at Rs 58,254 crore. Vodafone Idea has paid Rs 7,854 crores so far including Rs 1,000 crore paid on 17 July 2020 and Rs 6,854 crore paid in three tranches earlier. Balance due is Rs 50,400 crore (Vodafone’s self-assessment pegs dues at Rs 21,533 crore).
AGR dues for Bharti Airtel: outstanding dues as per DoT at Rs 43,980 crore. Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 18,004 crore so far- balance due is at Rs 25,976 crore (Airtel’s self-assessment pegs dues at Rs 13,004 crore). AGR dues for Tata Teleservices: outstanding dues as per DoT at Rs 16,798 crore. Tata Tele has paid Rs 4,197 crore so far- balance due is at Rs 12,601 crore ( Tata Tele’s self-assessment pegs dues at Rs 2,197 crore)
In October last year, the SC upheld the government’s position on the calculation of statutory liabilities. The government suggested the revenue from the non-core businesses should also be included in arriving at the annual AGR amount. A part of the AGR is paid by telecom companies as licence and spectrum fee to the exchequer.
However the companies appealed to the court to provide the option of staggered payments over either 20 years or 10 years. But the court asked telecom companies to provide bank guarantees and a timeline of payments so that it would have ample security to grant such a long tenure for repayments. The SC, however had ordered that demand of past telecom dues from oil PSUs be withdrawn. Accordingly, the DoT withdrew a demand of over Rs 2.3 lakh crore it had made on state-owned gas utility GAIL India and Oil India (OIL) in past telecom dues.
