Tata Sons' Chairman met Telecom Minister over AGR dues
Tata Sons’ Chairman N Chandrasekaran met Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, amid the process that the Telecom Ministry is prepared to issue a notice to Tata Teleservices for paying only part of its dues as full and final settlement.
The meeting lasted for over 30 minutes and Chandrasekaran declined to comment on it, later also met Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash.
The crucial meeting comes at a time when the government is looking to issue a detailed notice to Tatas for paying only Rs 2,197 crore as full and final settlement, whereas the government's calculation put Tata Teleservices' dues at about Rs 14,000 crore.
A senior government official asserted that the telecom department is not convinced with the company's dues assessment. A notice will be sent to the company in a day or two questioning its AGR calculation, the official said.
The Supreme Court, earlier this month, rejected a plea by mobile carriers such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for extension in the payment schedule and asked companies to deposit their past dues for spectrum and licences.
Since the February 14 tongue-lashing Supreme Court gave telecom companies for missing its previous deadline of January 23 to pay past dues as well as the Department of Telecommunication for failing to enforce it, firms and Telecom Ministry are busy doing separate maths on the actual dues.
Tata Teleservices has paid Rs 2,197 crore, the entire outstanding it believes to have arisen after the October ruling of the apex court for calculating dues.
With the sector reeling under the impact of statutory dues burden, Vodafone Idea Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla also met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last Tuesday.
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