As per the government, the Supreme Court (SC) order on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) will be applicable to all telecom licensees, even though they were not party to the dispute between phone companies and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
To this end, the telecom minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad stated in the Lok Sabha that while most of the licensees of DoT were not direct party to the dispute, the judgement will be applicable on all the licensees.
As a result, companies with minor telecom businesses may have to pay dues based on their entire revenue with retrospective effect which includes companies such as GAIL, RailTel, Power Grid and others.
According to industry estimates, the firms with telecom licences may have to pay in excess of Rs 2 trillion.
According to the DoT website, there are 3,468 telecom licensees across the country, including Power Grid, GAIL, Airports Authority of India, the National Stock Exchange, Ministry of Home Affairs, Cabinet Secretariat, Delhi Metro Rail Corp, NTPC, ONGC and Rail-Tel, among others.
However, the minister has not yet specified any amount due on this account.
