Top court notes arguments of telecom firm related to AGR dues, know what is the matter
AGR Dues: The Supreme Court has noted telecom companies' arguments on the petition filed by the telecom firm. The petition has asked to look into the mistake in AGR. The entire bench including the Chief Justice sought information in the email on this matter.
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The supreme court—the country's top court, on Monday, took cognizance of the PLEA filed by the telecom firm for rectification of a mistake in AGR—adjusted gross revenue. This bench includes Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwal, and Justice Manoj Mishra. In this, senior advocate Harish Salve has filed a petition on behalf of Vodafone Idea.
The telecom company has mentioned that a curative petition has been filed to rectify the mistake in the matter concerning AGR. This matter was yet to be listed before the bench was constituted. At the same time, in this case, the CGI has said that I will look into this matter and also asked to send an email regarding this issue. On the other hand, on 9 October last year, the apex court had seen the submission note related to AGR dues in the PLEA filed by some telecom companies. On a parallel note, there was some mistake in the AGR dues calculated by the Telecom Department side.
This was followed by the apex court's reluctance to acknowledge errors within the PLEA, which were related to AGR dues in July 2021. After that, several TSPs approached the apex court and argued that there exist many kinds of mistakes in AGR dues, amounting to about one lakh crore.
Now, the total dues of Vodafone-Idea were Rs 58,254 crore, and that of Bharti Airtel was Rs 43,980 crore. In between, the apex court gave 10 years to the telecom companies for winding up their dues to the government. With this, the AGR dues determined by the Department of Telecommunications will be considered final. Apart from that, it was also said that no kind of dispute will be raised from the end of the telecom companies after this. At the same time, no reassessment will be asked for.
While the 10 percent of the total dues demanded by the department of Telecom shall be paid by 31st March 2021, the remaining amount, yearly from April 1, 2021, till 31st March 2031, every year, has to be paid as an installment. Effectively, it gave 10 years time to the companies belonging to the telecom sector.
