Sunil Mittal Says Bharti Airtel Has Paid Full AGR Dues Of About Rs 13,000 Crore
“We have paid our full dues. It is in our letter...which is about Rs 13,000 crore, and Rs 5,000 crore which is extra,” says Mittal
Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s Chairman Sunil Mittal on Wednesday said that the telecom company has already paid its "full" adjusted gross revenue dues of about Rs 13,000 crore.
His comment came against the backdrop of the government demanding full payment of AGR dues as per the Supreme Court’s Oct. 24, 2019 order without further delay.
The Department of Telecommunications had then written to all telecom companies asking them to pay balance dues "without delay" and submit detailed bifurcation of payments (explanation of self-assessed amounts), which it said were necessary for proper reconciliation of legitimate AGR dues.
"They said pay full....we have paid full dues,” Mittal said after a meeting with Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash. "We have paid our full dues. It is in our letter...which is about Rs 13,000 crore, and Rs 5,000 crore which is extra.”
Mittal said that the government had asked companies to self assess their statutory dues, which Bharti Airtel has already done and made payments accordingly. "There is no versus... They asked us to self assess, we have self assessed and paid," he said.
Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 13,004 crore to the government in two installments. It had also deposited an additional Rs 5,000 crore as an ad-hoc payment (subject to subsequent refund/adjustment) to cover differences, if any, arising from the reconciliation exercise with the DoT.
The total payout by Bharti Airtel, however, is half of Rs 35,586.01 crore liability estimated by the DoT.