The government has for the first time said it would re-assess the statutory AGR dues based on the documents submitted by the telcos and issue revised demand notices.

“The telecom service providers have been directed to make payments on the basis of self-assessment and submit requisite documents for compliance. Following this, the DoT will carry out reassessments on the basis of documents submitted by the telecom service providers in accordance with the licence agreement and issue revised demand notices,” Sanjay Dhotre, minister of state for communications, said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Dhotre was replying to a question on whether the DoT is yet to work out final figures of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liabilities because of a variation detected in accounting practices and steps that the government has taken to rework the dues.

Officials have indicated that it could take at least 6-8 months for the DoT to assess telcos’ self-assessment documents. The telecom companies so far have paid about Rs 25,900 crore to the DoT.

The demand for AGR dues stood at Rs 1.47 lakh crore for all telecom companies, of which Rs 1.02 lakh crore are for surviving companies such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices.

The department of telecommunications wrote a letter on March 4 to all telecom companies seeking full payment of AGR dues and also asked companies to submit self-assessment documents at the earliest.

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal on Wednesday said: “Nowhere in the Supreme Court order did it mention the amount to be paid against the AGR dues.”