<p class="title">Amid mounting woes of telecommunication companies and their falling revenues, the GST Council may cut rate on telecom services to 12% from the existing 18%.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The proposal is under consideration of the fitment committee of the GST Council, which may decide on reducing the levy considering that the sector pays around 30% of its earnings in taxes and other fees, including spectrum usage charge.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The debt-laden telecom companies have sought relief from the government. The issue has come up for reconsideration after once India's third-largest telecom service provider Vodafone Idea posted the worst quarterly loss of Rs 50,922 crore, the biggest in India's corporate history.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This came after the late last month the Supreme Court upheld the government’s broader definition of telecom firms’ revenue on which tax is levied.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After the ruling, the operators became liable to pay tax on their non-core revenues—adjusted gross revenues (AGR), over and above the spectrum usage charges and licence fees.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It resulted in a Rs 92,000 crore liability for India’s telecom sector, Airtel, the second-largest telecom service provider and Vodafone Idea were the worst hit.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Days after the Supreme Court ruling, the government had set up a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) under the Cabinet Secretary to suggest measures to mitigate financial stress in the sector.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government is yet to take a decision on including the dues arising out of the Supreme Court judgement into its own accounts, signalling the government was not in a hurry to collect the dues from the sector at a time when its losses were mounting.</p>
<p class="title">Amid mounting woes of telecommunication companies and their falling revenues, the GST Council may cut rate on telecom services to 12% from the existing 18%.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The proposal is under consideration of the fitment committee of the GST Council, which may decide on reducing the levy considering that the sector pays around 30% of its earnings in taxes and other fees, including spectrum usage charge.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The debt-laden telecom companies have sought relief from the government. The issue has come up for reconsideration after once India's third-largest telecom service provider Vodafone Idea posted the worst quarterly loss of Rs 50,922 crore, the biggest in India's corporate history.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This came after the late last month the Supreme Court upheld the government’s broader definition of telecom firms’ revenue on which tax is levied.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After the ruling, the operators became liable to pay tax on their non-core revenues—adjusted gross revenues (AGR), over and above the spectrum usage charges and licence fees.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It resulted in a Rs 92,000 crore liability for India’s telecom sector, Airtel, the second-largest telecom service provider and Vodafone Idea were the worst hit.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Days after the Supreme Court ruling, the government had set up a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) under the Cabinet Secretary to suggest measures to mitigate financial stress in the sector.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government is yet to take a decision on including the dues arising out of the Supreme Court judgement into its own accounts, signalling the government was not in a hurry to collect the dues from the sector at a time when its losses were mounting.</p>
