DoT issues Rs 48.5K cr AGR dues for Oil India, PSU to appeal

The Department of Telecom has raised a demand of Rs 48,457 crore as AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) dues from Oil India to be paid by January 23.

"Demand notice has been sent to Oil India. It is around Rs 48,500 crore", said a source.

The share price of Oil India dropped 4.24% after the news. Many PSU and government entities such as Oil India, NHAI, Indian Railways and Power Grid Corporation use optic fibre from the DoT's networks under IP and ISP licences. As per SC order, the dues are to be computed from their parent revenue not just coming out of the communication-related services.

Earlier state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company AGAIL was issued a Rs 1.72 lakh crore payment demand under AGR for its on IP-1 and IP-2 licences as well as Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence. The Department had also sent fertiliser PSU GNFC a demand notice seeking Rs 15,019 crore in additional payment against its V-SAT and ISP licences for the period between 2005-06 and 2018-19.

"We have received a demand notice for paying payments by January 23. We plan to challenge it in TDSAT," Oil India CMD Sushil Chandra Mishra told media at an event.

Telecom companies Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Tele are set to file at Supreme Court again through a curative petition to seek relief in the payment of overdue levies and interest.

On January 17, the Supreme Court had rejected their review plea against its judgment on the payment of AGR amounting to nearly Rs 1 lakh crore. These companies will file a plea seeking modification of the AGR judgment.

The Supreme Court's October 24 order states that non-telecom revenues earned by firms using spectrum by the government should be considered for calculating statutory dues. The DoT has totalled all the revenues earned by a company in the last 15 years and raised the demand.