The challenge of additional payment and the total quantity due by telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices is back in the Supreme Court, which will now have to choose on the matter. Last year in September, the Supreme Court had ordered that the organizations require to spend their dues more than a 10-year period, soon after paying 10% of the dues upfront by March 31, 2021. Thereafter, the deferred payment cycle would run till 2031 with the 10% quantity to be paid by March 31 each and every year.
However, none of the 3 organizations paid the 10% of the due quantity on March 31, 2021. The reasoning of the organizations is that what ever they have paid so far is more than 10% so they have been not expected to spend something added by the March 31 deadline. For instance, the total dues of Bharti as per the division of telecommunications is Rs 43,980 crore and prior to the SC’s final order, it had paid Rs 18,004 crore. Similarly, the total dues of Vodafone stood at Rs 58,254 crore and it had paid Rs 7,854 crore. In the case of Tata Teleservices, the total quantity is Rs 16,798 crore and it had paid Rs 4,197 crore.
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However, the DoT’s interpretation of the order is unique. It stated that the apex court did not imply 10% of the total dues but 10% of the balance dues, so the operators have been expected to shell out further quantity. Now, considering the fact that the organizations have not paid any further quantity, the DoT will file a status report in the SC and wait for additional directions. The matter does not finish right here, as there’s yet another point which the organizations have raised, which the SC had agreed to hear but not fixed a date so far.
All the 3 telecom operators have petitioned the apex court in search of modification of its order so that DoT can think about their submissions relating to arithmetical errors in the calculations relating to the AGR dues. For instance, Vodafone Idea in its petition has stated that the calculations produced by DoT had errors like double counting, not taking into consideration payments currently produced, not adjusting for interconnect payments, and so on. It has stated that the excess demand due to these errors is to the tune of Rs 5,932 crore of principal quantity, which would have an all round influence of more than 4 occasions on the total principal quantity due to imposition of interest, penalty and interest on penalty.
The enterprise has produced it clear in its petition that it is not in search of any reassessment of the calculations, a thing which the SC order has barred, or raising any dispute, but only in search of correction in these arithmetical errors. The petition of Bharti Airtel, which was filed prior to Vodafone Idea’s, is also on related grounds. “There are a number of apparent arithmetic errors in DoT’s demands, such as duplications in revenue addition, errors of omission and errors of commission, which have nothing to do with the inclusion or exclusion of a particular head of revenue (taking the heads of revenue as final as per the AGR judgement dated October 24, 2019),” Bharti has stated.
Tata Teleservices has also filed a petition on related grounds. Though in February final week the SC had agreed to hear the petitions, it has so far not provided a date. Both DoT officials and market executives really feel that each the challenges, no matter if they require to spend 10% of the total quantity as initially installment or the balance quantity, and the rectification of arithmetical errors, possibly clarified and regarded as when the matter comes up for hearing.