The Union government has excluded dues pertaining to adjusted gross revenue (AGR) that the Supreme Court has directed telecom companies to pay to the department of telecommunications (DoT) in its revenue calculations for the current and the next fiscal year, economic affairs secretary Atanu Chakraborty said on Monday.
The AGR dues were not considered in the budget calculations as the matter is subjudice, Chakraborty said at a post-budget event organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
He said the higher revenue projection in the budget is because of spectrum charges and licence fees to be collected from telecom operators.
The government has pegged revenue of ₹1.33 trillion from licence fees and spectrum usage charges to be paid by telecom operators in 2020-21, more than double the ₹58,989 crore it expects to get this fiscal.
The apex court had on 24 October ended a 14-year battle by upholding the government’s definition of AGR, which includes income from revenue lines that are not central to the main business of telecom companies.
It directed the companies to pay dues of more than ₹1 trillion to DoT by 24 January. Vodafone Idea owes more than ₹50,000 crore to the government, while Bharti Airtel owes ₹35,586 crore. Tata Teleservices, which sold its mobile business to Airtel, has dues of ₹14,000 crore.
The government, however, said it will not take coercive action against telecom operators who failed to meet the court-directed 23 January deadline to pay the dues, after Vodafone Idea and Airtel sought more time, Mint reported last month.
Vodafone Idea, Airtel, and Tata Teleservices have sought more time to pay AGR-related dues and earlier in January filed a modification plea in the apex court to negotiate a payment schedule with DoT, which has issued demand notices for revenue share, interest, and penalty.
The court is likely to hear the modification pleas this week.
