The Supreme Court of India granted telecom companies a period of 10 years for clearing their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues of Rs 1.6 lakh crore. The ten year time period would kickstart from 1 April 2021 and in the remaining ten-month period companies have to deposit 10 per cent of the dues. The court added that penalty interest would take place in case of non-payment of instalments and that would be civil contempt of court.
The Supreme Court, in its verdict, rejected a 20-year payment timeline as their inability to pay the entire dues which was proposed by the central government and supported by the telecom companies. A three-judge bench said that the telecom companies must have to pay 10 per cent of the dues by 31 March 2020 and the rest amount would be paid in the next ten years till 31 March 2031.
Other than the core issue of the timeline for the repayment of dues, the court has also heard the arguments of telecom companies on how dues would be recovered from companies that have gone bankrupt including Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom), Aircel Group and Videocon Telecommunications Ltd. The court also inquired on why the companies like Reliance Jio and Airtel are using the defaulting company’s airwaves and not paying the AGR dues.
After the hearing on the spectrum matter, the court brought its additional stress on the financials of the defaulting companies. The highest dues was of Vodafone Idea for about Rs 58,254 crores, followed by Airtel with Rs 43,980 crores, Tata Teleservices with Rs 16,798 crores and Reliance Jio dues with Rs 194 crores.