New Delhi - The government must find ways to mitigate the impact of the Supreme Court's verdict to include non-core revenue for calculating fees to be paid by telecom companies to the Centre, Bharti Airtel Ltd said on Thursday.
The court today upheld the Department of Telecommunications' definition of what constitutes adjusted gross revenue of telecom companies.
According to a media report, the government's definition of new adjusted gross revenue, which has been approved by the apex court today, will lead to telecom companies paying around 900 bln rupees, with the bulk of it coming from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
"The TSPs (telecom service providers) have invested billions of dollars in developing the telecom sector and providing world-class services to consumers. This decision has come at a time when the sector is facing severe financial stress and may further weaken the viability of the sector as a whole," Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
The apex court has ruled that all revenues, except for termination fee and roaming charges, will be a part of the adjusted gross revenue.
Telecom companies pay a percentage of revenue as spectrum charges. While the government sought to include revenues from non-core businesses of a telecom company for calculating the charges, the companies wanted the formula to include revenue only from their core business.
The government and telecom companies have been in a legal battle since 2005 with regard to definition of adjusted gross revenue and the categories of revenue which can be subsumed within its ambit.
"The issue of inclusion of revenue from non-telecom activities and interpretation of the heads included in the definition of AGR (adjusted gross revenue) under the licence conditions has been through several rounds of litigation, which have been in favour of the TSPs (telecom service providers) till now." Bharti Airtel said.
The telecom companies sought "maximum time" in the Supreme Court today to comply with the additional payment they have to make to the Centre, but the government has requested the court to not give more than six months. The court said it will decide the timeframe later.
Today, shares of Bharti Airtel ended 3.3% higher at 372.35 rupees on the National Stock Exchange.
