Telecom companies have to pay AGR dues along with interest and penalty which is estimated to be around Rs 1.6 lakh croreSC AGR verdict LIVE: The Supreme Court is all set to pronounce its verdict on staggered payment of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, and on whether insolvent telecom companies can sell spectrum and how AGR dues can be recovered from them. A bench led by Justice Arun Mishra will deliver the verdict. Earlier in July 20 hearing, the top court reserved its order on a 20-year timeline for staggered payment of AGR dues by telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices. In the previous hearing, the top court said it may order the cancellation of spectrum allocation if telecom companies are not ready to pay the AGR-related dues owed to the government. It also said that telcos cannot wipe out AGR-related dues by taking someone else’s property free of any liability. The bench said if spectrum license is cancelled, it needs to be surrendered to the DoT and later auctioned for higher realisation. Telecom companies have to pay AGR dues along with interest and penalty which is estimated to be around Rs 1.6 lakh crore.
Out of Bharti Airtel’s nearly Rs 43,000 crore total dues, the company has paid nearly Rs 18,000 crore, Vodafone Idea has paid a total of Rs 7,854 crore to DoT towards the AGR dues, against its total AGR dues of around Rs 58,000 crore. While, total AGR dues for Tata Teleservices, as per the DoT, stands at Rs 16,789 crore. Out of which the company has Rs 4,197 crore so far.