Government Tries to Help Telecom Operators In order to help the telecom operators and decrease their stress regarding AGR dues, senior officials from telecom, finance and Niti Aayog department had a meeting behind closed doors and discussed all relief measures which can be deployed without any delays. Vodafone Idea has strictly marked that if no relief is provided by the Supreme Court, they will be forced to shut down their operations. In the meeting, senior officials suggested deferment of non-AGR dues and distribution of Soft loans to all the stressed telecom operators. Supreme Court on February 14 has marked that AGR dues must be paid by the next hearing day. However, Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and TTSL have already paid a combined of Rs 16,000 Crores to the government. DoT is Not Satisfied with Telcos Self-Assessment of AGR dues Tata Teleservices submitted their AGR dues and noted that they had paid Rs 2,197 crore as per its self-assessment. However, DoT calculated a whopping due amount of Rs 14,819 crores. On the matter, a senior executive from TTSL noted that “TTSL have already assessed themselves fairly and have paid a fair amount of AGR dues to the government. TTSL is hoping that the subject will be closed.” Similarly, Vodafone Idea has paid Rs 3,500 crore as of Dot’s estimate which is around Rs 57,000 Crore dues. DoT officials have mentioned that these discrepancies will further lead to litigation. Dot has initiated the process of reconciliation and might soon slap Telcos with a notice regarding the explanation of their rationale.
