Supreme Court Exempts Jio, Airtel Of Rs 40,000 Crore Dues Owing To Spectrum Sharing

The Supreme Court docket has exempted Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio from paying round 40,000 crores of previous dues for utilizing spectrum of different telecom firms who’re bankrupt. Notably, Jio makes use of spectrum of Anil Ambani’s money strapped Reliance Communications (RCom) whereas Airtel avails spectrum owned by Videocon and Aircel.

“Shared operator telecom firms can’t be saddled with legal responsibility of previous AGR dues,” the court docket in its detailed judgement on the fee of the dues.

The exemption nonetheless offers particularly with the shared spectrum utilized by firms and doesn’t embrace their unique dues.

The highest court docket on Tuesday gave telecom companies 10 years to clear enormous dues owed to the federal government, referred to as adjusted gross income (AGR), amounting to about Rs 1.6 lakh crore, in staggered funds. A 3-judge bench of the highest court docket mentioned telecom firms should pay 10 per cent of the dues by March 31 subsequent 12 months.

The court docket additionally mentioned the difficulty of sale of spectrum by telecom firms going through insolvency proceedings shall be determined by the Nationwide Firm Legislation Tribunal (NCLT).