The Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked telecom licence holders to fasten the process of self-assessment of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) based dues and their payment of over Rs 1.47 lakh crore, reported CNBC Awaaz.

The DoT last week communicated to all telecom companies against any delay in the payment of AGR dues and has asked them to seek clarifications by December 13 on any doubts they may have regarding the recent Supreme Court judgment, according to a DoT letter sent to the companies and viewed by CNBC Awaaz.

“Any issues should be pointed out in the comprehensive representation to be submitted, but in no case the self-assessment and payment of dues are to be delayed,” the DoT said in a December 5 letter to telcos.

“The comprehensive representation shall be submitted within a week (latest by December 13),” said the letter.

The Supreme Court decided in favour of the government’s contention that all revenue, including that from non-core sources, would be counted in calculating AGR. Licence holders have to pay about 8 percent of AGR to the DoT as fees. Telcos also pay about 3-4 percent of AGR as spectrum usage charges (SUC).

The government recently made it clear that the AGR order will be applicable to all telecom licensees, which includes companies such as GAIL, RailTel, PowerGrid and others.

“In this regard, it is pointed out that over a course of time, multiple representations related to LF (licence fee) assessments were received from various licensees for consideration by the department,” the DoT said in the letter.

“After the judgment, most of these have been settled and for any remaining issues, a comprehensive representation needs to be submitted to the department,” noted the letter.

First Published:Dec 10, 2019 2:31 PM IST