AGR: Scuttling its own case

By issuing notices of demand of Rs 265,061 crore to non-telecom PSU companies in an irresponsible manner, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has created another lifeline for the telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in the AGR matter. The Supreme Court had dismissed their pleas for review. The apex court in its October 24, 2019 judgement upheld DoT’s definition of AGR for the calculation of government dues payable by the telecom operators. The DoT has now demanded Rs 1.73 lakh crore from GAIL India Ltd for Infrastructure Provider Category-II (IP-II) authorisation, Rs 48,489 crore from Oil India for National Long Distance (NLD) license, Rs 22,063 crore from Power Grid for Universal License-Internet Service license, Rs 15,020 crore from Gujarat Narmada Valley, etc.