BackOil India to move TDSAT against DoT seeking ₹48,489 crore over AGR dues
DoT has slapped ₹1.47 trillion demand on mobile phone operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea and another ₹2.7 trillion from non-telecom firmsOther non-telecom firms, which have also been slapped with similar demands, too are likely to move the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal
PremiumState-owned Oil India is likely to move the TDSAT this week against the telecom department, seeking about ₹48,500 crore in past dues on the surplus bandwidth capacity it had leased to third parties, its chairman and managing Director Sushil Chandra Mishra has said.
Other non-telecom firms, which have also been slapped with similar demands, too are likely to move the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).
Those likely to go to the TDSAT include gas utility GAIL India Ltd, from whom ₹1.83 lakh crore has been sought, Power Grid Corp that has been slapped with ₹21,953.65 crore liability and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd which faces a payout of ₹15,019.97 crore.
Following the Supreme Court ruling of October 24, 2019 that non-telecom revenues should be included for considering payments of the government dues by firms holding any sort of telecom license, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) slapped ₹1.47 trillion demand on mobile phone operators such as Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd and another ₹2.7 lakh crore from non-telecom firms.
Non-telecom firms such as OIL, GAIL and PowerGrid filed clarificatory petition on applicability of the October 24 order on them, but the apex court on February 14 asked them to approach the appropriate authority.
"As per our licence condition, any dispute has to be referred to TDSAT and so we will be approaching TDSAT within a weeks time," Mishra told PTI here.
On February 14, the Supreme Court had pulled up the DoT for not enforcing its October 24 order that gave telcos three months time to pay dues. Hours later, the DoT sent notices to Airtel and Vodafone Idea asking them to clear dues immediately but hadn't so far raised such demand with non-telecom companies, industry sources said.
OIL, the nation's second biggest state-owned oil producer, holds a National Long Distance Service Licence (NLD) with primary objective of monitoring and operation of its pipeline network.
The surplus bandwidth capacity available with the company was leased out to the telecom operators/other users, on which the company regularly paid the applicable license fee to the telecom department (DoT).
But after the October 24 Supreme Court ruling for including non-telecom revenues for calculating dues, the DoT included all revenues from oil and gas to seek ₹48,489 crore from the company for the period from 2007-08 to 2018-19.
OIL believes that the October 24 judgement was not applicable to the company and had represented to the DoT stating that the demand raised is not sustainable either in law or on facts as the nature of licence in case of telecom service providers is different and distinct from the licences given to the company, Mishra said.
In case of GAIL, which held a IP-II licence, the DoT assessed ₹1,83,076 crore as outstanding after including interest and penalty computed on the entire revenue of the company.
PowerGrid, which holds NLD and Internet Service Provider (ISP) licences, was asked to pay ₹21,953.65 crore (including interest and penalty) for FY 2012-13 to FY 2017-18 by adding revenue related to power transmission and consultancy as 'miscellaneous income' in adjusted gross revenue, company sources said, adding the firm will approach the TDSAT in next few days.
Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd, which had a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) and a Category 'A' ISP, was asked to pay ₹15,019.97 crores for financial year 2005-06 to 2018-19.
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