Bharti Airtel has paid an additional Rs 8,004 crore to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) as its Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues. Airtel said in a regulatory filing that it has carried out self-assessment of its dues from the financial year of 2006-07 up to December 31, 2019, including interest of up to February 29, 2020 as per the AGR judgement. According to its self-assessment, Airtel owes DoT Rs 13,0004 crore.
Airtel said that is also includes the various license agreements entered into with the DoT and the various directions issued by the DoT from time to time with respect to Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC).
On February 17, Airtel had paid Rs 10,000 crore. In addition to this, on Saturday, Airtel paid Rs 3,004 crore more as the full and final amount overdue. And over and above that, it also deposited an additional amount of 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.
With this Airtel has now paid a total of Rs 18,004 crore towards AGR dues including the Rs 5,000 crore as a desposit.
“Based on the aforesaid payment, we have now complied with AGR Judgment and the directions in the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court dated October 24, 2019,” Airtel said in a filing with the stock exchanges.
As per DoT’s calculations, Airtel has AGR dues of Rs 35,500 crore, Vodafone Idea Rs 53,000 crore and Tata Teleservices (which has been merged with Airtel) owes Rs 14,000 crore. However, Tata Teleservices’ dues are being paid by Tatas.
After making an initial payment of Rs 2,500 crore in February, Vodafone Idea made an addition Rs 1,000 crore to DoT towards its AGR dues. Tata teleservices too, made a payment of Rs 2,200 crore earlier in February.
AGR is the percentage of revenue telecom companies are supposed to share with the government. After a 14-year long legal battle over what comprises AGR, the Supreme Court ruled in the government’s favour in October 2019, which then meant that the government had to receive Rs 1.47 lakh crore as AGR dues from telecom and some non-telecom companies.