Bharti Airtel Files Review Petition In The Supreme Court For Waiver Of Interest And Penalty In Adjusted Gross Revenue

Bharti Airtel has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court for the waiver of interest and penalty in the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) amount.

The telecom company has filed for the interest and penalty waiver and not on seeking extension.

Review petitions have to be filed within a month of original decision which came on October 24. As per original order, the company has to pay the dues by January 24.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and other telecom companies owe the government as much as Rs 1.47 lakh crore in past statutory dues, Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had stated in the parliament recently, adding that there is no proposal at present to waive interest and penalties on such dues.

In replies to questions in the Lok Sabha, Prasad had stated that telecom companies owe the government Rs 92,642 crore in unpaid license fee, and another Rs 55,054 crore in outstanding spectrum usage charge.

In the case of Bharti Airtel, the liabilities added up to nearly Rs 35,586 crore, of which Rs 21,682 crore is license fee and another Rs 13,904 crore is the spectrum usage charge (SUC) dues (not including the dues of Telenor and Tata Teleservices).

Airtel's colossal net loss of Rs 23,900 crore for just-ended September quarter was on account of exceptional charge pertaining to provisioning of Rs 28,450 crore towards the AGR dues, that included principle of Rs 6,164 crore, interest of Rs 12,219 crore, penalty of Rs 3,760 crore, and interest on penalty of Rs 6,307 crore.

In the case of Vodafone Idea, this number stands at a cumulative Rs 53,038 crore, including Rs 24,729 crore of spectrum usage charge (SUC) dues and Rs 28,309 crore in license fee.

The government made it clear that it is not considering any proposal on waiver of penalties and interest on outstanding license fee based on adjusted gross revenue (AGR), or on extending the timelines for telecom companies to pay up their statutory dues.

“No such proposal is under consideration of the government as on date,” Prasad had stated while responding to specific questions on whether the government proposes to provide a waiver for penalties and interest on the non-payment of license fee on AGRs by telecom operators and also on whether it is considering extending the time limit for the payment of license fee, penalty, interest and other dues.