Big blow to telecom firms, barring one

Legacy telecom players in the country — such as Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and the state-owned MTNL and BSNL — have been delivered a huge blow with the Supreme Court upholding the Centre’s right to recover overdue levies and interest worth over Rs 92,000 crore from them.

The effect on Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, a late entrant that is tormenting the legacy players with stiff competition, will be negligible.

A government affidavit suggests Airtel owes Rs 21,682.13 crore as licence fee to the government while the dues of Vodafone total Rs 19,823.71 crore. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications, which has gone into bankruptcy resolution, owed a total of Rs 16,456.47 crore. BSNL will have to cough up Rs 2,098.72 crore and MTNL, Rs 2,537.48 crore.