DoT Notifies Amendment for AGR Dues

The Department of Telecommunications notified the amendment to the Unified Licence Agreement for calculation of Adjusted Gross Revenue for computation of licence fee.

The new amendment takes Applicable Gross Revenue as equal to Gross Revenue minus revenue from operations other than telecom activities.

Income from receipts from USO fund, bad debts, excess provisions, interest, dividend, capital gains, income from property rent, and insurance claim will be excluded from Gross Revenue.

The amendment comes into effect from October 1, and will apply to the dues which arise for the telecom operator after the said date, DoT said.

The definition of AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue), which had been a major bone of contention for the sector has been rationalised by excluding non-telecom revenue of telecom companies on prospective basis in a Cabinet meeting in September.

Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav had then said: "PM (Narendra) Modi took a bold decision over AGR today. A decision has been taken to rationalise the definition of AGR. All non-telecom revenue will be taken out of AGR. There was a regime of heavy interest, penalty and interest on penalty on payment of license fees, spectrum user charges and all kinds of charges. It has been rationalised today."

Relief on computing dues relating to AGR, a four-year moratorium on dues, and the option for the government to convert dues into equity after the moratorium period expires were the key elements of the relief package approved by the Union Cabinet.