Govt to take action for non-payment of AGR dues

The government has directed the telecom service providers (TSPs) to make payments as per the Supreme Court judgment on AGR and in case of non-payment action will be taken as per licence agreements.

This was stated in reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday by Minister of State for Communications Sanjay Dhotre.

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Dhotre said that the government has directed the TSPs to make payments as per the Supreme Court judgement of October 24, 2019.

In case of non-payment of dues to Department of Telecommunications, the government will take action as per the licence conditions of the TSPs.

In a reply to a related question, Dhotre said the Supreme Court had detached the public sector undertakings (PSUs) from the AGR judgement and directed them to seek relief from the appropriate forum.

PSUs such as GAIL, Oil India represented to DoT that the AGR judgement is not applicable to them and therefore they do not owe any dues.

The Minister reiterated that the government abides by the Supreme Court orders of February 14, 2020.

In another question related to stress in the telecom sector, the Minister said the government has given an option to the TSPs to defer the spectrum payment instalment for 2020-21 and 2021-22, either for one or both years.