Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal on Thursday met telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and sought a cut in taxes and levies for the sector, amid the “unprecedented” AGR crisis. The company had paid Rs 2,197 crore to the government on Monday, while DoT’s calculations peg the outstanding amount at over Rs 14,000 crore. Besides licence fees, telecom companies owe Rs 55,054 crore in spectrum usage charges (SUC), according to estimates prepared by the DoT. The telecom department will verify telcos’ claims of lesser AGR dues by initiating random “test checks” before March 17, sources said. The exercise will help the department assess the gap between telcos’ claim of what their AGR dues are and its own estimates.

Source: The Telegraph February 20, 2020 19:18 UTC