Supreme Court to hear AGR case on March 18 over allowing telecom companies to pay their dues over 20 years

The Supreme Court will hear the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) matter on Wednesday and take up government's application allowing telecom companies to pay their dues over 20 years.

The bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and M R Shah will hear the matter.

The same bench on October 24 upheld the Department of Telecom (DoT) definition of the AGR, which included rental receipts, dividend income and income from any other telecom activities of the companies.

The order came as a major blow to telecom sector as they have to pay Rs 1.43 lakh crore to the DoT as licence fee, spectrum usage charges, interest and penalties.

The DoT, which also pleads with the SC to modify AGR judgement and subsequent orders, requested the top court to allow payment of dues in installments with an interest rate of 8% per annum. Interest on principal, penalty and interest in penalty should not be charged beyond the date of the AGR judgement delivered on October 24, said the DoT proposal.

While asking the SC to approve the relief proposal, the DoT said that telecom sector is facing a tough time and the collapse of any service provider will lead to job loss, negative impact on other sectors of the economy and foreign direct investment sentiment.

Closure of one or more telecom service providers also adversely impacts the digital connectivity in the country, e-commerce, e-banking and e-government, the DoT said in the application.