The department of telecom (DoT) has sought more time from the Supreme Court to respond to the telecom companies’ plea for staggered payment of their massive telecom dues to the government.

Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the DoT, told the apex court on Thursday that the government had received several affidavits from telecom operators and was examining them.

The Centre also informed the Supreme Court that it has decided to withdraw 96 per cent of the Rs 4 lakh crore demand for AGR related dues raised against non-telecom PSUs such as GAIL.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, S. Abdul Nazeer and M.R. Shah said the telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, must come out with a “reasonable payment plan” and asked them to file their books of accounts for the last 10 years. The private players want to stretch the payout over 20 years.

The court fixed the matter for hearing in the third week of July.

The apex court has softened its stand after insisting in February that the payment should be made immediately in line with last year’s court verdict.

The dues — calculated under a formula for determining adjusted gross revenues (AGR) — has been a bone of contention between the Centre and the telecom players since 2007.

During the hearing, the apex court bench asked about the security and guarantees which can be sought from telecom companies to ensure the payment of the dues.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Vodafone Idea, said that it has already paid Rs 7,000 crore to the DoT, but keeping in mind the “precarious” financial condition, it was not in a position to furnish any bank guarantee.

The bench observed that during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, telecom is the sector which is making money and they should deposit some money as the government needs that to deal with the situation.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Bharti Airtel told the court that out of the Rs 21,000 crore due, Airtel has paid over Rs 18,000 crore.

“I am one of the two major operators and the country needs to have competition. I have licence fees and bank guarantees which the DoT needs to evaluate,” Singhvi said while suggesting that the DoT can encash the guarantee in case of default by Airtel.

The DoT has also filed an affidavit explaining why it had raised a Rs 4 lakh crore demand of AGR-related dues against public sector units earlier.

At the previous hearing, the apex court had slammed officials of the department of telecom for using its order of November last year as justification for raising the demand on the PSUs.

The bench had spiked the demand and demanded an explanation from the telecom department officials.