Telecom Companies Are Granted 10 Years To Clear Off AGR Dues By Supreme Court

 

 

 

The AGR sues amounts to Rs. 1.5 lakh crore as the Supreme Court has granted 10 years to the telecom companies to clear it. It is going to be a big relief for the telecom companies as on Tuesday, the Supreme Court has granted them 10 years to clear the dues of AGR that amounts to staggering Rs. 1.5 lakh crore. The amount has to be paid by the telecom companies to the center.

The bench in Supreme Court that has been headed by Justice Arun Mishra has allowed the pleas by the telecom companies to deposit the amount in various installments and they have been granted time till the year 2031 so that they get enough time to clear the dues. The Centre has pleaded the court to grant them a time of 20 years but only 10 years are given by the court to these telecom companies.

It has been said by the Supreme Court that the telecom companies are going to pay 10 percent of their dues to ward off the debt a little bit by the end of the present financial year. It had already been said that the time granted by the Court is till March 31, 2021, for the first of the installments because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The bench has asked the chief executive officers (CEO) and the managing directors (MD) of the concerned telecom companies to furnish personal guarantee or undertaking within four weeks for the initial payment of dues.

It has also been made very clear by the Supreme Court that if there is any case of default in the payment of installments the telecom companies will have to pay the penalty for delayed payment and will also be liable to contempt of court.

Nevertheless, the court has refrained from adjudicating based on the fact of the spectrum of an insolvent telecom company that could be sold and the issue will be left for NCLAT to decide.

The telecom companies are directed by the Supreme Court on the 14th of February to pay all the AGR related liabilities by the 17th of March to the government. Subsequently, the self-assessed AGR dues of the telecom companies are paid to the government either partly or entirely.

The most vulnerable of the telecom companies in the Vodafone idea and if the court does not allow for a staggered payment as they have so far paid Rs. 7,854 crore that is a whopping $1.08 billion but as of now they still owe to the government roughly around Rs. 50,000 crores.

It has already been said by Bharti Airtel that it has completed paying its dues of Rs. 18,000 crore and that is purely based on self-assessment. But the fact of the matter is that they still need to pay a staggering amount of another Rs. 25,976 crore. All these figures are purely based on calculations made by the government and all of these are based on facts and need no further speculations.