On a day when the Supreme Court-mandated last date for Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for paying Rs. 88,624 crores in earlier dues completed, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Thursday made the decision to not to take coercive action against mobile service providers that failed to meet the court-directed 23 January deadline, seeking relaxation in the apex court’s order.
Airtel, Vodafone Idea seek more time from Govt
On 23 January, the licencing finance policy wing of the department of telecommunications (DoT) stated in an internal letter, “You are directed not to take any coercive action against the licencees in case they fail to comply with the Supreme Court order, until further orders,”
DoT is also going to submit a detailed compliance report by 5 pm on Friday, stated the letter.
While Bharti Airtel as well as Vodafone Idea did not pay the dues, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio paid Rs. 195 crores for clearing all outstanding against it, official sources stated in the report.
In the meantime, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, the mobile service provider is least affected by the order of Supreme Court that directed telcom company to pay more than ₹1 trillion in back fees, has paid ₹195 crore to DoT for clearing dues that are related to its licences as of 31 January, a person aware of the matter stated on condition of anonymity.
At the same time, Vodafone Idea, was worst hit by this order of court, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices are going to await the hearing of their modification pleas that are filed in the Supreme Court previous this week before making payments, they said.
Emails that were sent to DoT, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices as well as Vodafone Idea were unanswered till the press time.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the pleas that were filed by Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, as well as Tata Teleservices next week, but at the same time did not comment on the status of the original payment last date.
Vodafone Idea id being indebted more than ₹50,000 crore to DoT, while Bharti Airtel on the other hand has to pay ₹35,586 crore. In addition to that, Tata Teleservices, which sold its mobile services business to Airtel, also has dues of ₹14,000 crore.
In addition to that, Oil India filed a modification plea on Wednesday in order to seek for changes to the October verdict. DMRC as well moved court on Wednesday seeking for clarification, saying that DoT’s demand was unfair.
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated that there seems to be “some miscommunication” as telecom is not a central business of these state-run energy companies. He said, “We will seek exemptions for GAIL, OIL and PGCIL. We are in discussion with the telecom ministry.”
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