SC Gives Telecom Firms 10 Years to Clear AGR Dues of Rs 1.6 Lakh Crore; 10% to be Paid by March 31

During the hearings, the telecom companies had proposed different timelines for clearing of dues. Vodafone Idea and rival Bharti Airtel had sought 15 years for payment of dues, while Tata Teleservices Ltd requested a window of 7-10 years. The DoT, however, had stuck to the Union Cabinet’s proposal of payment within 20 years.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, which launched in September 2016, paid its relatively minuscule dues of ₹195.18 crore in January.

The bench, which also comprised justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, had reserved the verdict on July 20 on the aspect of granting timeline to telcos for staggered payment of AGR- related dues by saying that it will not hear “even for a second” the arguments on reassessment or re-calculation of the AGR.

Prior to this, it had asked the telecom companies to file their books of accounts for last 10 years and give a reasonable time-frame for paying the AGR dues and later got miffed when some senior lawyers started disputing the dues being calculated by the DoT.

It had said that the period of 15-20 years sought by some of the telecom companies was not reasonable and had asked the Centre as to how it would secure the payment of dues by them. Later, the top court on August 24 was informed by the DoT that all liabilities including AGR-related dues should be cleared by telecom firms prior to spectrum trading as per the guidelines.