Tata Communications has reportedly disputed Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) demand for payment of dues worth Rs 11.99 billion on grounds that the international and national long distance (ILD & NLD) licenses owned by the company do not fall under the purview of Supreme Court’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) verdict.
Further, the company has also said that it has made a payment of Rs 3.79 billion to the DoT under protest during the quarter ended March 31, 2021.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in the AGR case, the DoT had issued a demand of Rs 66.33 billion from Tata Communications in September 2019.
According to Tata Communications’ financial statement, the company had clocked in profits worth Rs 2.99 billion in the quarter ended March 2021, period, recording a marginal dip of 3.2 per cent from preceding quarter’s profit of Rs 3.09 billion. The telco had incurred a loss of Rs 2.75 billion in the corresponding period last year.
Tata Communications’ consolidated revenue stood at Rs 40.73 billion, recording a YoY fall of 7.4 per cent. This has been largely due to degrowth in voice business and data business.
Meanwhile, data revenue stood at Rs 35.15 billion, recording a fall of 2.2 per cent on YoY basis. This reduction is primarily due to longer deal conversion and execution cycle due to COVID-19 and moderation of unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) traffic.
