DoT orders no coercive action on defaulting Airtel, Voda-Idea

On a day when the Supreme Court-mandated deadline for Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to pay Rs 88,624 crore in past dues ended, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Thursday decided not to take coercive action against defaulters during pendency of their appeals in the apex court for relaxations in the order.

While Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea did not pay the dues, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio paid Rs 195 crore to clear all outstanding against it, official sources said.

Parallelly, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the Rs 3-lakh crore sought by the DoT from non-telecom PSUs, such as GAIL, Oil India Ltd and PowerGrid, was a result of “communication gap” as these firms are not liable to pay any dues following the Supreme Court’s October 24 ruling that non-telecom revenues of telecom firms should be included for considering payments of Government dues.