Tata Group telecom companies Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd (TTML) have made an additional payment of ₹2,000 crore to the Department of Telecommunications.
The payment is made in good faith and as a matter of abundant caution towards licence fees, spectrum usage charges and applicable interest, penalty and interest on penalty.
“This on-account payment is subject to reconciliation after the conclusion of the process of computation and verification being conducted by DoT spanning a period beginning from FY2007 and spread across 20 circles,” the companies said in joint statement.
The payment of ₹2,000 crore is in addition to ₹2,197 crore the firms on February 17 in the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) issue, it added.
On February 14, the Supreme Court came down hard on DoT for not taking action or collecting AGR dues from operators and also asked operators to clear their dues before next hearing of March 17.
Earlier in its October 24, 2019, order, the apex court dismissed the incumbent operators’ plea seeking a review of AGR and asked them to cough up nearly ₹1.3 lakh crore as dues.
Later on February 29, Bharti Airtel paid an additional ₹3,004 crore towards AGR dues, following a self-assessment from financial year 2006-07 up to December 31, 2019. The payment was made on behalf of three group companies — Bharti Airtel, Bharti Hexacom and Telenor India, it said.
In addition, the company also deposited an additional ₹5,000 crore as an ad-hoc payment (subject to subsequent refund/adjustment) to cover differences, it added.
Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL), which has to pay the maximum AGR dues of Rs 53,000 crore, had paid ₹3,500 crore last month.
The company has been pleading with the government for a significant hike of mobile data tariff and call charges at 6 paise per minute to be able to improve its balance sheet and pay AGR dues.
Vodafone Group Chief Executive Officer Nick Read has also sought a meeting with Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad this week, hoping to find a solution for the AGR issue.