SC allows recovery of 92K cr

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected telecom companies' appeal against the government's definition of adjusted gross revenue and allowed the Department of Telecommunications to recover dues worth Rs. 1.33 lakh crore from Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Idea.

The Supreme Court said that the adjusted gross revenue will also include other items besides licence fee. However, the gains from sale of capital assets and insurance claims by telecom companies will not be a part of it, the top court further said.

The apex court said it had rejected all other submissions of the telecom companies. It added that the service providers would have to pay penalties and interests to DoT.

The bench made it clear that there would no further litigation on the issue and it would fix a time frame for calculation and payment of dues by the telecom companies.

In July, the Centre had told the apex court that leading private telecom firms like

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and state-owned MTNL and BSNL have pending licence fee outstanding of over Rs 92,000 crore till date.

As per the New Telecom Policy, telecom licensees are required to share a percentage of their adjusted gross revenue with the government as annual license fee. In addition, mobile telephone operators were also required to pay spectrum usage charges for the use of radio frequency spectrum allotted to them.

The verdict came as a huge relief for the telecom department but as a big setback for the telecom operators, which are reeling under heavy debt and intense competition in the sector. "We are disappointed by the verdict of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. The definition of AGR has been a long standing dispute between the DoT and the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) dating to 2005," Bharti Airtel spokesperson said. The telecom companies have sought six months for clearing the dues.