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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the department of telecommunication (DoT) to provide details of spectrum-sharing and trading among telecom companies and the amount payable by them to clear their AGR dues so that liability could be fixed on them.
In view of some of the telcos like RCom and Videocon sharing and trading their spectrum with other companies while they themselves are facing insolvency proceedings, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and M R Shah said it would examine on how much of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues could be paid by telcos which are using their spectrum. It asked the government to brief about the details of sharing and trading of spectrum.
Reliance Jio, which has spectrum-sharing agreement with RCom, has already agreed before the court to pay AGR dues for the period during which it used RCom’s spectrum and claimed that all the amount has already been paid.
The bench is examining how to ensure that AGR dues are paid by telcos which are facing insolvency proceedings after they defaulted on loan repayments. As the Centre took the stand that spectrum of these companies could not be subject to insolvency proceedings which meant that it cannot be sold, the committee of creditors (CoC) of RCom and Videocon told the court that keeping the spectrum out of the insolvency proceedings would not solve any problem.
Senior advocates Harish Salve and N K Kaul, appearing for CoC, contended that if the spectrum is not traded and goes back to the government, AGR dues can never be recovered and banks will also lose money as they will not be able to recover the amount loaned to the defaulting companies.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Airtel, also supported their view and said spectrum is the most valuable asset of a telecom company and if the court held that spectrum cannot be traded, it would have a very adverse impact on the telecom industry and no bank in future would lend money to a telecom company.
The hearing remained inconclusive and would resume on August 24.
In view of some of the telcos like RCom and Videocon sharing and trading their spectrum with other companies while they themselves are facing insolvency proceedings, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and M R Shah said it would examine on how much of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues could be paid by telcos which are using their spectrum. It asked the government to brief about the details of sharing and trading of spectrum.
Reliance Jio, which has spectrum-sharing agreement with RCom, has already agreed before the court to pay AGR dues for the period during which it used RCom’s spectrum and claimed that all the amount has already been paid.
The bench is examining how to ensure that AGR dues are paid by telcos which are facing insolvency proceedings after they defaulted on loan repayments. As the Centre took the stand that spectrum of these companies could not be subject to insolvency proceedings which meant that it cannot be sold, the committee of creditors (CoC) of RCom and Videocon told the court that keeping the spectrum out of the insolvency proceedings would not solve any problem.
Senior advocates Harish Salve and N K Kaul, appearing for CoC, contended that if the spectrum is not traded and goes back to the government, AGR dues can never be recovered and banks will also lose money as they will not be able to recover the amount loaned to the defaulting companies.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Airtel, also supported their view and said spectrum is the most valuable asset of a telecom company and if the court held that spectrum cannot be traded, it would have a very adverse impact on the telecom industry and no bank in future would lend money to a telecom company.
The hearing remained inconclusive and would resume on August 24.
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