The government on Thursday refused to give statutory payments or fines or any exemption to telecom companies Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea on the basis of Adjusted gross revenue (AGR). In the Rajya Sabha, Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad gave this information in written reply to a question that was asked if there is any such proposal?

Reconsideration petition in Supreme Court for help
In fact, telecom companies have filed reconsideration petitions in the Supreme Court on the AGR dues, demanding an exemption of fines and interest charges. Vodafone Idea has to pay Rs 54,000 crore as AGR dues, while Bharti Airtel has to pay Rs 43,000 crore.

Government refuses to give relief
Overall, the telecom companies have to pay the AGR dues of Rs 1.47 lakh crore to the government. And the government is not in a mood to give any relief to it. License fees and spectrum usage charges (SUC) are calculated on the basis of AGR. Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel are disappointed about the fines and interest, due to which their existence is being questioned.

Vodafone Idea and Airtel incurred significant losses in the July-September quarter due to making provision for the same AGR. Along with this, there is pressure on the telecom companies to increase their mobile charges recently to pay AGR.

Let us tell you that non-telecom companies will also have to pay the arrears of AGR, whose telecom business is very small, but they have a license. These include government companies such as GAIL, RailTel, Delhi Metro and Power Grid.