Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices on Monday rushed to pay a part of their outstanding dues on adjusted gross revenues (AGRs) even as the apex court refused to stop the government from taking coercive action to prevent any further delay in clearing their full dues.
The apex court had pulled up the operators on Friday for failing to clear their dues and had ordered them pay up before the next date of hearing on March 17.
Airtel on Monday paid Rs 10,000 crore, Vodafone Idea put in Rs 2,500 crore and promised to pay another Rs 1,000 crore before the end of the week. Tata Teleservices paid Rs 2,197 crore.
Bank guarantees
The department of telecommunications (DoT), which was last week rapped by the apex court for ordering no coercive action even after the operators missed the January 23 payment deadline set by the court, is mulling the option of encashing bank guarantees given by operators when they got their licences, sources said.
The encashing of the bank guarantees may sound the death knell for companies such as Vodafone Idea, which has been struggling to garner the dues.
The telecom department officials will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether or not the bank guarantees should be encashed, as none of the operators have paid the full payment.
Sources said that the option of encashment of bank guarantees was being considered and that “nothing is off the table”.
A decision on the matter may be taken on Tuesday, the sources added.
Self-assessment
In a related development, the telecom companies have started disputing the DoT estimate of the due amount and indicated they will pay as per their “self-assessment”.
Sources said Vodafone Idea has asked its statutory dues be adjusted against the Rs 7,000 crore owed to it by the tax department.
The refund is related to a Supreme Court order in 2012 that said the Vodafone-Hutchison deal was not taxable in India. The Congress-led government had then made the tax rules retrospective and the matter is under litigation.
Separately, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das in an interview to PTI said the central bank is “very closely monitoring” the fallout of the crisis on lenders.
Das said so far no red flags have been raised but the central bank continues to monitor the situation closely.
Blow to Voda
Vodafone Idea on Monday said Care Ratings has downgraded the rating on its long-term bank facilities and non-convertible debentures.
The downgrade is on account of “significant erosion” in the overall risk profile of the company in the wake of absence of relief on modification plea relating to AGR dues on February 14. It also takes cognizance of recent losses suffered by the company in the quarter ended December, the company informed the stock exchanges late on Monday.
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said he believes non-telecom PSUs were not covered by the Supreme Court order that asked licence holders to pay statutory dues after including non-telecom revenues. The government's demand from such companies was many times more than their net worth.
“The DoT has served notice to government oil companies due to some communication gap. We have placed our side after doing all legal consultations,” Pradhan told reporters here.
The minister said none of the PSUs slapped with the huge demand has any core work in the telecom business. “Telecom is not the core business of either GAIL or OIL or PowerGrid,” Pradhan said, adding that telecom became part of their business for internal consumption.
Vodafone Idea on Monday said Care Ratings has downgraded the rating on its long-term bank facilities and non-convertible debentures. The downgrade is on account of “significant erosion” in the overall risk profile of the company in the wake of absence of relief on modification plea relating to AGR dues on February 14. It also takes cognizance of recent losses suffered by the company in the quarter ended December.
