The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on the timeline of staggered payment of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) related dues by telecom giants including Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices.
A three judges bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice M. R. Shah heard the matter through video conferencing said that, “ Heard parties on liability and time frame for making the payment. While hearing the matter, attempts were made to wriggle out of the liability like asking for reassessment and recalculations”.
The bench has also said that as a huge amount of AGR dues is remaining, they will examine the bonafide of R.Com going into insolvency. The bench has asked for the details of R.Com, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Videocon to be submitted within 7 days.
On the issue raised by several telecom companies like Tata and about the incorrect dues calculation by the department, the Bench said that we will not permit this to happen in this country, we’ll not hear arguments for reassessment even for a second. The bench further added that we will impose an exemplary cost on Telecom Companies.
Whereas, when the Court asked Senior Advocate Mr. Mukul Rohatgi about how much time would you need to pay off the AGR Dues. On this, Mr. Rohatgi submitted that we need 15 years to pay off.
However, Justice Mishra stated that 15 to 20 years is not a reasonable time, Companies should come up with a reasonable timeline.
The bench has reserved its order on the timeline for the payment of AGR and asked the details about the companies going into insolvency within 7 days.
The matter would now be heard on August 10.
-India Legal Bureau