The Centre on Wednesday said it had till now received only ₹15,896.51 crore from telecom firms as payment towards their adjusted gross revenue-related dues.
This is about 11% of the total estimated dues of ₹1,46,336.98 crore, leaving ₹1,30,440.47 crore still to be paid ahead of the next Supreme Court hearing on the issue on March 17.
Replying to a query on whether the government proposed to take any action over non-compliance of order on payment of dues, Minister of State for Communications Sanjay Dhotre said the government had directed the licensees to make the payments in accordance with the October 24, 2019, Supreme Court order.
“As per the licence agreement, the government takes action against licencees, including telecom service providers, over non-compliance of the Supreme Court order dated October 24, 2019, on payment of dues to the Department of Telecommunication,” he said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
Asked if the government intended to propose a plan for future developments in the telecom sector, keeping in mind the huge fees required to be paid by the companies, he said there was no such plan at present. On a query over speculation about Vodafone Idea shutting down, he said, “No such information is available with the government.”
As per the data shared by the Minister, Vodafone Idea has paid ₹3,500 crore as against its estimated liabilities of ₹53,038.60 crore, Reliance Communication paid ₹3.96 crore as against its estimated liabilities of ₹21,135.64 crore, and Reliance Jio has paid ₹195.18 crore, which is in excess of its estimated AGR dues of ₹60.52 crore.
For Bharti Airtel (including Telenor), the Minister said a payment of ₹10,000 crore was made as against estimated liabilities of ₹27,740.36 crore. However, this does not reflect the additional payment of ₹8,004 crore by the company on February 29. Likewise, for Tata Group, the government said it had received a payment of ₹2,197.37 crore as against estimated liabilities of ₹11,625.92 crore. The group had on March 3 said that it had made an additional payment of ₹2,000 crore to the DoT towards dues related to adjusted gross revenue.
State-owned BSNL and MTNL, which owe the government ₹4,989.46 crore and ₹3,122 crore, respectively, have not made any payments towards their liabilities.
The government further noted that the due amounts may be revised once AGR figures were finalised and assessments done accordingly, and subject to the C&AG Audit/Special Audit.