Telcos Owe Government Rs 22,000 Crore Towards Adjusted Gross Revenue; Centre To SC

Telecom companies owe as much as Rs 22,000 crore to the Department of Telecom towards adjusted gross revenue (AGR), the government informed the apex court on Monday.

“There are about 289 appeals related to the same issue pending before court. After the government changed its regime for spectrum licence to revenue sharing several telecom companies have challenged it,” Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha, informed the court.

The government changed its policy with respect to spectrum licences in 1999. The migration package introduced by the government in allowed telecom companies to share a percentage of their annual revenue with the government against payment of a fixed amount as licence fee as determined during auctions.

In light of this migration package that introduced the “revenue sharing regime” telecom companies licences were amended by including the definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

Telecom companies refuted the Centre’s claim of crores pending towards AGR, saying that the government Is trying to garner revenue earned by companies through its non-telecom business and activities.

AGR can be related to only telecom operations covered under the licence agreements and not on non-telecom activities, companies argued.

Telecom companies told the Telecom Disputes Tribunal last year that if companies are forced to include non telecom revenue under AGR they will have to shell out a major part of their revenue. In 2015, the TDSAT ruled that all non core telecom activities will be considered as part of AGR. After this verdict, telecom companies and the government have been battling out the issue of AGR across various forums.

The Centre told the court it is facing major revenue loss as a result, and urged the Supreme Court on Monday to hear the matter and decide at the earliest.

The Supreme Court will hear all cases related to the issue of AGR on October 24.