JOIN USSC dismisses pleas of telecom majors for recalculation of AGR
The Supreme Court has said telecom companies can't be provided any relief in the guise of rectification of arithmetical errors in computation of AGR (adjusted gross revenue), which has already been rejected by the top court last year.
The companies asked the court to allow the Union government to verify their accounts and rectify the defects and if it was not allowed, it could threaten some of them in a highly competitive sector.
A bench presided over by Justice L Nageswara Rao on Friday rejected the plea.
“Though these applications appear to be innocuous at first blush, the end result of the relief sought by the applicants in the guise of correction or rectification of the defects or arithmetical errors in calculation of AGR dues, would be recalculation which would amount to the AGR dues, as specified in the order of this court dated July 20, 2020, being altered,” the bench said.
The top court pronounced the order on applications filed by the Telecom companies on Friday. However, the eight-page order was uploaded on its website on Saturday afternoon.
The bench, also comprising justices S Abdul Nazeer and M R Shah, pointed out that even at the time of passing of the July 20, 2020, order an attempt was made to seek recalculation and reassessment, which was rejected by this court.
“The dispute relating to AGR dues had remained pending in courts for a very long period of time and bearing this in mind, this court was at pains to emphasise, at the cost of repetition, that the AGR dues payable by TSPs (telecom service providers) cannot be the subject matter of any future litigation," the bench said.
The court made it clear that any application for altering the AGR dues cannot be entertained.
The companies ---Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Tatas-- claimed that the accounts pertaining to several years had to be scrutinised to arrive at the amounts payable by them towards AGR dues.
They contended that a scrutiny of the accounts revealed that certain arithmetical errors have arisen due to inadvertence on the part of the Department of Telecommunications.
A note submitted by the DoT in the top court last year, stated that Vodafone Idea owed Rs 58,254 crores, out of which it has paid around Rs 7850 crore; Bharti Airtel owed Rs 43,980 crore and it has paid over Rs 18,000 crore; and Tata Telecom owed Rs 16, 798 crores, out of which it has paid Rs 4,197 crore.