Power Grid Corporation said it has filed an application before Supreme Court against Department of Telecom's demand of around Rs 22,000 crore in past dues, saying its revenue from telecom business was only 2% of its turnover.
Following the October 24 Supreme Court ruling that non-telecom revenues of telecom firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea should be included for considering payments of government dues, the telecom department (DoT) sought additional license fee from non-telecom firms also.
The DoT had sought additional license fee of Rs 1.72 lakh crore from gas utility GAIL India Ltd, Rs 48,000 crore from OIL, around Rs 22,000 crore from Power Grid Corporation (PowerGrid), and has raised similar demands from RailTel and other PSUs. The company pointed out, "Non-Telecom revenue of Power Grid i.e. power transmission and its related consultancy business constitutes 98% of revenue whereas revenue from telecom segment is only about 2%."
