SC junks telecom cos’ plea seeking AGR recalculation

NEW DELHI: In a setback to telecom companies, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed their plea for recalculation of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) to be paid to the Centre and now they will have to pay a total Rs 1.69 lakh crore as directed by court which rejected their self-assessment of dues at around Rs 40,000 crore.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Hrishikesh Roy dismissed the plea of telecom companies which had pleaded that there was error on the the part of government officials who calculated the dues and sought court’s direction to rectify it. With the dismissal of the plea, they will have to comply with the SC’s September order by which telecom firms were granted 10 years more time to clear remaining AGR dues of around Rs 1.43 lakh crore to the Centre.