Supreme Court gives partial relief on AGR

The Supreme Court has given telecom players 10 years to pay their balance adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues in a staggered manner, instead of in one go.

The apex court also directed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to decide within two months whether operators such as Reliance Communications (R-Com) and Aircel can resort to insolvency proceedings to avoid the payment of their dues and whether their financial creditors can lay claim over the dues to the government.

The top court, which held that the demand raised by the Department of Telecom (DoT) in respect of the AGR dues will be final, said there shall be no dispute raised by the operators and that there shall not be any re-assessment.