Budget hope for telecom

Telecom operators would be looking for some kind of relief from the Supreme Court in their modification plea on adjusted gross revenue (AGR), which would come up for hearing on Monday — with analysts, from their perusal of budget documents, expecting the government to collect less than the total dues of Rs 1.47 lakh crore at least in the next fiscal.

The government expects to collect Rs 1.33 lakh crore from the telecom sector in the next fiscal, which is more than double the collections from 2019-20. According to the government estimates, in the current financial year (2019-20), revenues from “other communication services” will be Rs 58,989.64 crore against a budgeted amount of Rs 50,519.81crore.