A day after the Supreme Court rapped telecom companies for failing to pay their dues to the Department of Telecommunications despite orders, the Congress lashed out at the Centre, accusing it of “favouring” private players by deferring the recovery of dues.
Posing a question to the Union government, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala asked, “What is the quid pro quo for the Modi government to defer the recovery of dues from telecom companies?”
The apex court had on Friday directed top executives of telcos to explain why contempt action should not be initiated against them for the non-compliance of its October 2019 order to pay adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of ₹1.47 lakh crore to DoT.
Mr. Surjewala alleged that on January 23, the Narendra Modi government had issued an order “for not recovering the dues from telecom companies and not to take any coercive action”.
The Congress leader also accused the Centre of deferring the recovery of ₹42,000 crore (spectrum auction instalment) from telecom companies in a Union Cabinet decision in November last year.
