Pradhan blames ‘communication gap’for DoT’s AGR call to ‘non-core’ telcos

The Department of Telecom’s demand seeking adjusted gross revenues (AGR) as licence fee from ‘non-core’ telecom PSUs could be due to a “communication gap” Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, said here today.

Speaking at the sidelines of the national Conclave on ‘Emerging opportunities in natural gas sector’, Pradhan said that the Supreme Court order allowing the levy of this charge on telecom companies may not negatively impact oil public sector undertakings.

“We are in talks with the Department of Telecom and we have given our view on the same. It seems there was some communication gap because of which one arm of the government has raised such demands on other arms of the government,” Pradhan said.