Govt asks telcos to submit supporting documents on AGR self-assessment

The Department of Telecom has asked the telecom firms including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Tata Teleservices to submit supporting documents on AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) self-assessment, at the earliest.

Since the Supreme Court in its order earlier directed the telecom firms should pay their AGR dues as per their self assessments, the DoT said that supporting documents from companies could help it to examine the AGR calculations made by them.

Though no deadline has been given to companies to submit the supporting documents, the government told them to submit the details at the earliest.

Earlier, the DoT has served the notices to 15 entities, who have AGR dues worth Rs 1.47 lakh crore, but the telecom companies disputed the amount saying that as per their self assessment, dues were much less.

"After getting the supporting documents from telecom companies, the DoT will make random test checks on the AGR calculation. The random check will help the government to verify the claim by the companies that their AGR dues were much less than the government claim," said the official.

According to the DoT, in a first batch, it has sent notices to three operators - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices - asking for supporting documents. In the next stage, the DoT will also follow the same procedure for all other AGR-hit companies including internet service providers.

Of the total Rs 1.47 lakh crore AGR dues, so far Vodafone paid Rs 3,500 crore out of Rs 53,000 crore in statutory dues while Airtel has paid Rs 10,000 crore out of its DoT estimated liability of over Rs 35,000 crore. Tata Teleservices has paid Rs 2,197 crore.