Telcos consider filing curative petition, the next move after Supreme Court's AGR verdict

NEW DELHI: The government is waiting to see whether telecom companies will legally challenge Tuesday's adjusted gross revennue (AGR) order as sources say some of them are considering filing curative petitions.“We (the cabinet) had wanted to give 20 years (to pay AGR dues),” a senior government official told ET. “Our decision was based on certain calculations… The judgment will have to be studied, financial implications and their effect on the market structure will have to be understood… We also need to see what are the kinds of initiatives the companies intend to take.”People with knowledge of the matter said that the view is that one or separate curative petitions, rather than a review, may work better as errors in computing the AGR dues may need to be corrected. But no final decision has yet been taken on the next step.“If Vodafone (Idea) were to file for a review to extend the timeline, it might just be the only operator and that in itself weakens its case,” said one of them. “But all three telcos have contested the amount charged to them, which is to say that they are not contesting the definition of AGR but simply saying some errors have crept into the calculation which has inflated their dues.”Also, a reduction in the amount is preferable to extending the timeline, said the people cited, explaining the thinking on the part of the three telcos.The government had suggested a 20-year period but the court said the dues had to be paid off in 10 years. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea had sought to clear their dues in 15 years.Bharti Airtel, through senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, did not rule out a review or a curative.“The SUC does not constitute AGR and this a jurisdictional question. SUC is a ripe area for review. It was not in the government chart earlier,” Singhvi said. He was referring to the initial AGR ruling of October 2019 which focussed on licence fees. But as SUC (spectrum usage charges) — like licence fees — are computed on the basis of AGR, subsequent government filings in court included SUC dues from telcos as well. Mukul Rohatgi, senior counsel for Vodafone Idea, declined to comment, when asked if the telco would file a review or a curative petition.Tata Teleservices didn’t respond to queries.77882153The telcos had in January sought a limited review of the October 2019 AGR judgment in the hope of softening the blow but had not challenged the entire order. However, the three-judge bench headed by justice Arun Mishra rejected it on January 16, saying, “There was no justifiable reason to entertain the review petition.”The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has estimated Bharti Airtel’s dues at Rs 43,980 crore, that of Vodafone Idea at Rs 58,254 crore and those of Tata at Rs 16,798 crore under the “total demand of DoT incorporating CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) and special audit as on October 2019” category.Against this, Bharti has calculated its dues at Rs 13,004 crore, Vodafone Idea at Rs 21,533 crore and Tata at Rs 2,197 crore. The three-judge bench led by Mishra, who retires on September 3, had rejected these latter assessments and upheld the DoT demands.

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