Nobody wants to kill telecom sector: SBI chief on AGR

Amid ongoing turmoil on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues issue, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar on Monday said that "nobody wants to kill the telecom sector". The public sector lender said that it is yet to hear from the government on the issue, Kumar reportedly said, when asked if it has sought views from bankers.

Commenting on the problems faced by the telecom industry, the SBI chief said, "Nobody wants to kill the sector, let me be very clear."

Earlier this month, Kumar had said that the SBI has nearly Rs 29,000 crore loan exposure to the telecom sector, the highest among Indian banks. Adding to this, the country's largest lender has an additional Rs 14,000 crore in non-fund based exposure which will devolve only if there is a non-payment of dues.

Kumar had said this after the Supreme Court (SC) made it clear that the telecom companies will have to pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore in AGR dues. Given the high exposure to the telecom sector, he had said that the banks would speak to telcos about their plans to deal with the crisis.

In wake of deepening crisis in the telecom sector, the government is trying to strike a balance between complying with the Supreme Court order on AGR dues, ensuring the health of the sector and safeguarding consumer interest.

The government has said it will conduct a 'test check' for any one year (of telcos' dues) to examine variances between telecom companies' assessment and the government's own calculation of AGR liabilities.

As per the DoT estimates, 15 entities owe the government Rs 1.47 lakh crore - Rs 92,642 crore in unpaid licence fee and another Rs 55,054 crore in outstanding spectrum usage charges.

Vodafone Idea, which owes over Rs 53,000 crore in dues, has made a total payment of Rs 3,500 crore. While Bharti Airtel has paid 10,000 crore, Tata Teleservices has made a payment of Rs 2,197 crore.

By Chitranjan Kumar with PTI inputs

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