Govt may offer relief on AGR if Airtel, Vodafone Idea, other telcos get reprieve from SC

The government will wait for the outcome of the limited review petition scheduled to be filed by the telecom operators in the Supreme Court shortly on the issue of payment of licence fee and spectrum usage charge based on the definition of adjusted gross revenue, to decide its next course of action on the matter.

Official sources said that if the operators get any relief from the apex court in terms of more time to pay up their dues, then the government is likely to come out with a deferred payment installment scheme, much like the one related to spectrum payment. The total dues relating to AGR totals Rs 1.47 lakh crore according to figures tabled by the department of telecommunications in the Parliament on Wednesday. Of this, the licence fee stands at Rs 92,642 crore and SUC at Rs 55,054 crore. The bulk of the dues are payable by Vodafone Idea at Rs 53,039 crore. Bharti Airtel needs to pay Rs 35,586 crore.