Tata Sons Chairman meets Prasad over AGR dues

New Delhi: Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran on Tuesday met Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at a time when the Department of Telecom (DoT) is in the process of issuing a notice to the group's telecom firm, Tata Teleservices, for paying only part of its AGR dues.

As per sources, though it is not known what transpired during the meeting, it is believed that the Tata Sons chief explained their side of the story to Prasad.

The DoT will issue notice to Tata Teleservices next week on its self-assessment figure of Rs 2,197 crore AGR dues as "full and final" payment against a DoT demand of Rs 14,819 crore.

According to the DoT, Tata Teleservices so far has AGR dues of Rs 14,819 crore and has paid Rs 2,197 crore. The company said it is the full and final payment.

Official sources said that DoT would send notice to Tata Teleservices pressing the Rs 14,000 crore plus demand.

"The company has submitted its self-assessment process to the DoT, but there seems to be a wrong interpretation on many heads leading them to come to the current figures. They might be asked for a personal presence for clearing computational errors," a source said.

Following the Supreme Court judgement on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, Tata Teleservices told the stock exchanges that the company has paid Rs 2,197 crore to the DoT.

"Pursuant to the judgement dated October 24, 2019 of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and in accordance with further communications from the DoT, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML) have made a payment of Rs 2,197 crore to the DoT towards license fees and spectrum usage charges," said the company statement.

Both also submitted to the DoT the details of calculations in support of the payment.