Kumar Mangalam Birla meets telecom secretary Anshu Prakash over AGR issue: Report
Debt-laden Vodafone Idea paid Rs 2,500 crore on account of its AGR dues on Monday and promised to pay another Rs 1,000 crore by Friday
New Delhi: Billionaire business tycoon and Vodafone Idea Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on Tuesday (February 18) met telecom secretary Anshu Prakash to discuss issues related to dues on adjusted gross revenues (AGRs), according to a business news channel report. Details of the discussions were not immediately available.
It is worth noting that the debt-laden telco paid Rs 2,500 crore to the government on account of its AGR dues on Monday and promised to pay another Rs 1,000 crore by Friday.
“The board will take further stock of the situation to see how additional payments can be made,” the company said in an exchange filing on Monday. As per the government calculations, Vodafone Idea has to pay Rs 50,000 crore to the department of telecommunications (DoT).
Last week, the Supreme Court pulled up the telecom department for ordering no punitive action even after the telcos missed the January 23 payment deadline set by the top court. The court had warned of contempt proceedings against top executives of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and others for failing to comply with its order to pay dues related to AGR of Rs 1.47 lakh crore to the telecom department.
On Monday, Bharti Airtel made a part payment of Rs 10,000 crore to the DoT against the dues related the AGR. Airtel owes around Rs 35,586 crore to the government.
It has been reported that Airtel and Voda Idea disputed the government estimate of the due amount. Airtel’s self-assessment puts the dues at Rs 15,000-18,000 crore, instead of more than Rs 35,500 crore estimated by the DoT, while Voda Idea’s calculations peg the dues at Rs 18,000-23,000 crore against the DoT’s Rs 53,000 crore estimate.
