Oil India moves SC over Rs 48,000 crore AGR dues 

The DoT’s demand notices are based on this order, with the government holding that the judgement covers all licence- holders.
The Supreme Court of India (Photo | PTI)
The Supreme Court of India (Photo | PTI)

NEW DELHI:   State-owned oil major Oil India Ltd (OIL) on Wednesday became the first non-telecom firm to move the Supreme Court (SC) against its AGR order, filing a clarificatory petition over the Department of Telecom’s (DoT) demand seeking payment of over Rs 48,000 crore in pending dues, interest and penalties for the period between FY08-FY19. According to the firm, it has made just Rs 1.47 crore as revenue by leasing spare bandwidth capacity during this period.

“(Our) next course of action will be based on the outcome of the petition,” it said. The plea assumes significance since the DoT has sent demand notices to several nontelecom firms including those like GAIL, Powergrid Corporation and RaiTel seeking the payment of AGR dues aggregating to a staggering Rs 2.4 lakh crore.

Apart from OIL, the DoT has sought around Rs 1.7 lakh crore from GAIL India, RS 22,000 crore from Powergrid, Rs 15,000 crore from Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers and Chemicals and around Rs 290 crore from Railtel.

Adjusted gross revenue (AGR) is the basis on which levies like licence fees and spectrum usage charges are calculated and the SC had ruled last year that this should include proceeds from licenceholders’ non-telecom businesses too.

The DoT’s demand notices are based on this order, with the government holding that the judgement covers all licence- holders. “While most of the licensees of DoT were not direct party to the dispute, the ratio of the judgement will be applicable on all the licensees,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had told Parliament in December.

The Indian government charges a license fee of 8 per cent of revenue currently and according to the DoT website, there are 3,468 telecom licensees in India. Affected firms have contested that the revenue they gain from the use of various telecom licenses are extremely low and that they have been paying the mandated dues on this revenue diligently.

OIL, in its petition, says that it had obtained a National Long Distance Service Licence (NLD) primarily to establish a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for the management and protection of its pipeline network. “... only the spare bandwidth capacity is leased-out to other telecom operators,” it further said, contending that according to the terms of agreement, “license fee is to be paid on Gross Total Revenue from services provided under the NLD license”.

“Since the award of NLD licence, a cumulative revenue of Rs 1.47 crore (has been) earned by OIL from leasing of spare bandwidth capacity on which all applicable licence fee and other statutory dues as per license terms has been paid regularly,” it pointed out.

While the SC on Tuesday did not relax the January 23 deadline for telecom firms while agreeing to hear modification pleas next week, government sources say that this deadline is not likely to be applied to non-telecom firms. non-telecom firms.

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