TELECOM’s LOST CAUSE
India’s telecom operators were hoping against hope. But the March 18 order of the Supreme Court gave them no route for escaping AGR (adjusted gross revenues) liabilities. The court even came down heavily on them for self-assessing the dues instead of straightaway paying the amounts it had fixed in an earlier order. It was the second time the court had rapped telcos and the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) for not obeying its orders. It said telcos had done serious violations and were liable to pay the entire amount they owed to the government. “We see that attempt has been made to scuttle the effect of order of this court and that is a gross violation of the order of this court by entering into a process of self-assessment/reassessment that is virtually reopening of entire dues, that kind of exercise is not at all permissible and is tantamount to sitting over the order of the court,” said the three-judge bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra.
Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices had done their own assessments of AGR).
