TelecomLive April-2020

AGR Dues Telecom LIVE April 2020 38 www.telecomlive.com The court has clearly ruled out self-assessment. In its March 18, order, the court said, “We are of the conclusive opinion that no self-assessment / re-assessment can be done. When we decided the case bills were raised and the amount was crystalized… reopen- ing of the same is not at all per- missible.” The court also took strong objection to false propaganda by incumbent telcos claiming that a sudden heavy burden has been imposed by the October 2019 judgment. The top court said the case was decided way back in 2011. The court in its March 18 order said, “We take note of the situation that every day incorrect stand in derogation to order is being taken up and full attempt is being made by projecting that all of a sudden, this court has imposed certain dues. As a matter of fact, this court has in its previ- ous judgment dated October 11, 2011, in the same case, settled the propositions and only for limited purpose, the case was sent back. Thereafter, bills were raised and dues were before us, we settled the issues finally and at the same time, ordered that there shall not be any further exercise.” The court added, “There is no authority with any company to enter into self-assessment / re- assessment and to reopen the dues which have been settled finally by this court.” It further stated: “There are serious kinds of violations which have been committed by the com- panies. We do not appreciate at all the way in which they are acting. In case they indulge in it any further, their managing director shall be personally respon- sible for further violation of the court's order.” The court passed the above orders on March 18, 2020 in an application moved by the DoT to grant 20 years to the companies to pay their AGR dues with 8 per cent interest. The court had ordered this to be con- sidered “after two weeks”, but further hearing is likely to be delayed due to Covid-2019. Background The case dates back to 1999 when all the private telcos started pleading with the government that the licence fee (LF), they commit- ted to pay to obtain licenses dur- ing bidding, is high and unsus- tainable. The government then gave them the option to move to the revenue-share regime under which it was proposed that opera- tors would provisionally pay LF at 15 per cent of the gross revenue (GR). It was also clearly stated that the GR would be the total revenue of the licensee company excluding the interconnection- related call charges paid to BSNL he Supreme Court, in its T latest order on March 18 2020, set aside the Department of Telecom- munications' (DoT) plan to get six months more to evaluate the self- assessment of the dues linked to AGR (adjusted gross revenues) payable by telecom companies. The DoT knew that Justice Arun Mishra, who headed the three-judge bench which delivered the AGR verdict on October 24, 2019, would be retiring on Sep- tember 2 this year, and if the case is dragged on for the next six months, a new bench will be formed, where the telcos may have better chances of getting substan- tial relaxations in dues. This is DoT's third failed attempt. It had issued a “no coer- cion” order on January 23, only to be withdrawn immediately after the court's order of February 14. Around the same time, the DoT issued irrational demand notes to certain non-telecom PSU compa- nies such as PowerGrid, ONGC and the like, with the hope that when the court gives them some relief, the benefit of the same can be passed on to the incumbent telcos as well. The court junked these pleas, too. Already six months have passed since the October 2019 judgment, but it appears that the DoT is not interested in calculating dues. The figures submitted by the DoT to the apex court of about Rs 169,049 crore dues (table at pg 39) are for 2016-17. DoT has not made any efforts to calculate the dues for the latest three financial years (FY18, FY19 and FY20). On the other hand, it is just relying on the self-assessment figures pro- vided by the telcos, which is a meagre sum of Rs 37,175 crore as against Rs 169,049 crore demand till FY17. AGR Dues r SC draws the line for DoT and telcos on AGR self-assessment r Already six months have passed since the October 2019 judgment, but DoT seems to be in no hurry to calculate its up-to-date dues