Synopsis: The self-assessment of Bharti Airtel pegs its total dues at 13,004 crore, although out of the total AGR dues of 44,000 crore sought by the DoT, it has already paid over 18,000 crore.
Telecom company Bharti Airtel has moved the Supreme Court to seek the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to recalculate the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues that it owes to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and to pray in this regard for recalling earlier orders issued by the Supreme Court.
The self-assessment of Bharti Airtel pegs its total dues at 13,004 crore, while out of the total AGR dues of 44,000 crore sought by the DoT, it has already paid over 18,000 crore.
Bharti Airtel argued in its plea before the Supreme Court that the AGR payments made earlier were not taken into account by the DoT, while the demands for different circles and years were raised.
Airtel’s plea states that the earlier orders of the Supreme Court directing that the amounts indicated should be treated as final and that no further assessment process should take place as an “ex facie mistake of this Hon’ble Court.”
Airtel has argued that the court made some errors in that:
i. Admittedly, the process of assessment of past dues was not finalised/completed; and
ii. Accordingly, the Annexed Chart of the Respondent expressly stated that the amounts alluded to therein were based on “Preliminary Assessments” and were expressly stated to be “subject to further revisions on behalf of departmental assessments.”
The petition argues that by adding it twice from different audit reports, duplication of revenue addition, omission and commission errors led to an increase in AGR dues, alleging that an incorrect interest rate was applied to raise demands for Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC).
Accordingly, the application seeks clarification/modification/recall of the orders of 18th March 2020, 20th July 2020 and of paragraph 38(i) of 1 September 2020, insofar as:
i. Direct that the said amounts mentioned in the Respondent’s Statement, be taken as the final amounts and
ii. Preclude the Respondent from proceeding with and completing the departmental assessments and finalizing the amounts due and payable.
Similar petitions have yet to be filed by other telecom companies, although they had previously claimed that DoT’s demands were more than their self-assessment before their position was rejected by the top court.
The top court upheld the definition of AGR by DoT in October 2019 and asked telecom companies to clear dues within three months. In January 2020, review petitions were rejected by telecom companies, after which they sought a longer timeline to pay AGR dues in order to avoid bankruptcy.
The apex court subsequently gave telecom companies 10 years to clear unpaid AGR dues in September 2020 and urged the NCLT to decide on spectrum sale under IBC. It also exempted payment on all prior shared spectrum dues, which saved AGR dues worth over Rs 40,000 crore from being paid by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.