(LiveMint)
The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on the issue of recovery of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues of insolvent telcos. The apex court said it will also clarify additional liabilities, if any, of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel on account of past dues on the spectrum they bought from Reliance Communications, Videocon and Aircel respectively.
SC noted that if the seller of spectrum did not clear its dues before sale, the liabilities would be transferred to the buyer as per trading guidelines. Telecom service providers (TSP) are responsible for spectrum purchase prices, deferred spectrum instalments and AGR dues, which include spectrum usage charges and license fees.
If the apex court directs telcos using spectrum of bankrupt companies to pay the past dues, then both Airtel and rival Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd will be hit hard. While Aircel owes ₹12,289 crore in AGR dues, Videocon has a liability of ₹1,376 crore and RCom owes ₹25,199 crore.
