In a four-part cover story, we bring to you the most comprehensive coverage of the AGR issue and reveal the alarming details of how DoT is trying to scuttle the Supreme Court judgement on recovery of dues from defaulting telcos, namely Airtel and Vodafone Idea. The judgement, a 14-year legal struggle is on DoT’s side, but suddenly DoT has developed cold feet, a benign description for its sabotage. It is busy hatching mechanisms and issuing orders to derail the verdict and the revenue collection. If DoT persists with this line of action then we are witnessing the making of the biggest scam in the telecom sector pegged at Rs 2 lakh+ cr, surpassing the 2G spectrum scam (Rs 1.76 lakh cr) and covered the UPA regime in eternal infamy.

Many spaces, forums and columns have been used to whip up a rage against the SC verdict which has largely been in the nature of generalized noise to hoodwink the specificities. In the past eight months, since the judgement was delivered DoT has only focused on preparing the ground for why the dues cannot be collected.

First, DoT chose to rely on the self-assessment figures provided by the telcos, a sum of Rs 37,175 cr till date, as against Rs 169,049 cr demand till FY17. Airtel has paid Rs 18,004 cr and claims that it has paid full amount while Vodafone has paid Rs 6,000 cr and claims that it has no money. The SC has clearly ruled out self-assessment.

Second, DoT planned a six-month delay and described it as time required for evaluation of self-assessment of dues. This was nixed by SC on March 18, 2020. Then it raised the most irrational demand on non-telecom PSUs like ONGC, PowerGrid. This ploy too failed.

While DoT has been extraordinarily hyperactive to stymie the collection to benefit Airtel and Voda-Idea, it gave no such quarter to other operators. RCom was denied spectrum liberalisation and spectrum trading until it paid up AGR related SUC dues, though the matter was still under litigation. Its BGs were encashed, finally faced with such discriminatory conduct from DoT, its proposed merger plans came undone and RCom had to file for insolvency.

The AGR matter in the telecom industry has a policy and legal history, the claims of the government have been upheld in several judgements of SC (October 11, 2011 and October 24, 2020). The present trajectory of the matter will have grave implications for the future on contractual sanctity of license conditions, compliance with apex court decisions, role of the state vis a vis responsibilities to the exchequer and accountability to the taxpayer. At a very functional level, it will be watched whether the AGR matter mutates into the AGR Scam driven by colluding DoT leadership and operators.