Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Friday for review of its earlier judgement ordering telecom companies to pay over Rs. 92,000 crores to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in penalties.
DoT had previously claimed that the telecom companies had under-reported their revenues. As the levies are calculated based on the company's adjusted gross revenues (AGR), DoT had alleged that the telecom companies' AGR included income from dividends and revenue from the sale of handsets bundled with services. This is something that the companies refute.
The SC had ordered the companies to make the payments within three months of the judgement, while the DoT issued demand letters recently.
The sector which has been hit hard by the norms and by pricing issues was given some relief recently by the Centre. The Cabinet recently approved a moratorium of two years for spectrum payments.
In other related news, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel will be raising prices for their services from December 1. Reliance Jio also intends to hike its tariffs.
The government's moratorium, combined with the upcoming price hike is expected to give some relief to the telecom companies.
