New Delhi: In a huge setback for telecom service operators in India, like Vodafone-Idea and Bharti Airtel, the Supreme Court of India has dismissed a curative petition filed by them, seeking to revisit a 2019 judgment of the court which had said that non-core revenue of the telecom operators will be taken into account while fixing the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR).
Telecom operators will have to pay over Rs 92,000cr to the government of India as AGR dues accumulated
Dismissal of the curative petition by the Supreme Court means that the telecom operators will have to pay over Rs 92,000cr to the government of India as AGR dues accumulated over the last 15 years.
The curative petitions filed by the telecom operators was a last legal recourse available to them for challenging the 2019 judgment of the Supreme Court which had held that non-core revenues by telecom operators will be taken into account while computing AGR, which in turn will determine the fees payable by the telecom operators to government of India.
What did the apex court say?
A bench of three judges of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice BR Gavai went thought the curative petitions on August 30 and in recently released judgment said that “We have gone through the Curative Petitions and the connected documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this Court in Rupa Ashok Hurra v Ashok Hurra case. The Curative Petitions are dismissed.”
As per calculation made by the department of telecom, the AGR dues payable by Vodafone-Idea was Rs 58,254 crores and Bharti Airtel due was Rs 43,980 cr.
Telecom service operators under revenue sharing agreement are to pay a licencing fee and spectrum usage fee
As per the telecom policy of India, Telecom service operators under revenue sharing agreement with the Telecom department are to pay a licencing fee and spectrum usage fee to the telecom department. And this fee payable to telecom department is calculated as a percentage of the AGR.
Now, whether AGR will included revenues earned by the telecom companies by non-core activities has been a bone of contention between the government and the telecom operators since 2005.
The issue was settle by the supreme court in October 2019 where it held that non core revenues by telecom operators will be included in computing the AGR.
Supreme Court of India in 2020 passed a judgment in a application by telecom operators and given them 10 years time to pay up the dues to government of India and directed telecom companies to pay the 10 percent of AGR dues to the Department of Telecom by March 2021 and subsequent dues were to be paid by the telecom service operators by March 31, 2031.