As per Bharti Airtel’s chairman Sunil Mittal, the Supreme Court (SC) had simply asked carriers to pay their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, without specifying the quantum. Further, Mittal added that the telco has already paid its entire Rs 130 billion AGR dues, based on its self assessment.
The total payout by Airtel, however, is less than half of its liability estimated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) which stood at Rs 370 billion.
Mittal’s comments follow DoT’s recent direction to all telecom companies including Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices to pay the remaining AGR dues without delay in accordance with the top court order.
Airtel has paid Rs 130.04 billion to the government in two instalments. Further, the telco has also deposited an additional Rs 50 billion as an ad-hoc payment to cover differences, if any, arising from the reconciliation exercise with the DoT.
Recently, the government had again directed telecom operators to make full payments towards their respective statutory dues. The government has so far received part payment of about Rs 259 billion from the telcos. Up until now, Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices has paid Rs 180.04 billion, Rs 35 billion and Rs 41.97 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio have paid Rs 39 million and Rs 1.95 billion, respectively.
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