Non-telecom firms hit by top court’s ruling on AGR

NEW DELHI : Last year’s Supreme Court order defining telecom revenue has landed a number of non-telecom companies in a soup, with the government asking them to cough up more than ₹2 trillion in pending dues and interest.

India levies licence fees of 8% of adjusted gross revenues (AGR) from every telecom licence holder. Ending a 14 year battle between telcos and the department of telecommunications (DoT), the apex court on 24 October defined AGR as all revenues of a licence holder and not just revenues from telecom services. The order dealt a body blow to telcos and also made non-telecom companies holding licences for internal communications and signalling liable to pay licence fees on their entire revenue, even if do not offer telecom services.