Sanjay Singh / New Delhi
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) received Rs 1,000 crore on Thursday from India’s telecom company Vodafone Idea as part of its pending AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) dues to the government.
This is the second round of payment by Vodafone Idea, after it paid Rs 2,500 crore to the DoT this week on Monday after the Supreme Court issued contempt warning against telecom companies and DoT. Vodafone Idea has however to pay Rs 53,000 crore as dues against AGR.
Vodafone Idea has at the same time said it would have no option but to shut operations if it pays all pending dues. The SC had earlier rejected Vodafone’s plea seeking for a “no coercive action” to recover its dues.
Bharti Airtel and Tata Group have also made payments of Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 2,197 crore, respectively, on Monday. According to the Supreme Court ruling, telecom companies have to pay up the pending dues by March 17, next month.
The Supreme Court’s order this week on Monday has triggered a crisis for telecom companies that have been facing revenue losses every quarter. Telecom companies in total owe Rs 1.47 lakh crore to the DoT. This includes Rs 92,600 crore as licence fee and Rs 55,100 crore as spectrum usage charges. Bharti Airtel has dues of Rs 35,600 crore, while Vodafone Idea has to pay Rs 53,000 crore.
Similarly, Reliance Communication (RCom) has to pay dues of Rs 21,200 crore while Tata Group has to pay Rs 13,800 crore. Of the total dues, Vodafone Idea and Airtel collectively are required to pay Rs 88,600 crore.
The dues, is understood to go up as the DoT is in the process of calculating AGR dues for financial year 2018-19 and 2019-20. It may be mentioned here that the DoT has till date demanded AGR dues, including licence fees, interest and penalties, till year 2016-17 only, while spectrum charges of Rs 55,100 crore have been calculated till financial 2019-20.