{"id":1156,"date":"2019-11-01T17:31:18","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T17:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/finance\/2019\/11\/01\/coai-ignores-member-jios-protest-seeks-waiver-of-all-past-statutory-dues-for-airtel-vodafone-idea\/"},"modified":"2019-11-01T17:31:18","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T17:31:18","slug":"coai-ignores-member-jios-protest-seeks-waiver-of-all-past-statutory-dues-for-airtel-vodafone-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/2019\/11\/01\/coai-ignores-member-jios-protest-seeks-waiver-of-all-past-statutory-dues-for-airtel-vodafone-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"COAI ignores member Jio&#8217;s protest; seeks waiver of all past statutory dues for Airtel, Vodafone-Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-image\">\n<figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy lazy-hidden wp-image-1751902 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/a3-lazy-load\/assets\/images\/lazy_placeholder.gif\" data-lazy-type=\"image\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai.jpg\" alt=\"COAI, Jio, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea,\u00a0Ravi Shankar Prasad, telecom dues\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai.jpg 660w, https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai-401x267.jpg 401w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1751902 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai.jpg\" alt=\"COAI, Jio, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea,\u00a0Ravi Shankar Prasad, telecom dues\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai.jpg 660w, https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/images.financialexpress.com\/2019\/11\/coai-401x267.jpg 401w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\"\/><\/noscript><span class=\"article-caption\">Jio has separately written to Prasad opposing any bailout to telecom companies at taxpayer\u2019s expense and asserted the COAI should not be considered an association representing the industry. (REUTERS)<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ignoring its member Reliance Jio\u2019s contentions, telecom industry association COAI has shot off an \u2018addendum\u2019 to its earlier demands and has now sought a complete waiver of statutory dues that its other members such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea owe to the government following the Supreme Court ruling.<\/p>\n<p>The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director-general Rajan S Mathews on October 31 shot of a second letter in as many as days to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad seeking waiver of the \u201centire\u201d amount of Rs 1.42 lakh crore due to its principal members Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd and other telecom operators \u201cgiven the poor financial state of the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court on October 24 upheld the government\u2019s position on including revenue from non-telecommunication businesses in calculating the annual gross revenues of telecom companies, a share of which is paid as licence and spectrum fee to the exchequer. It directed the telcos to pay the principal due together with interest and penalties within three months. \u201cHowever, if such a step (complete waiver of all dues) is not possible, we request that the government waive off the interest, penalty and interest on penalty. Since the disputed payments go back to accumulation over the past 14 years, we request that the principal repayment of past dues be done over a period of 10 years, with a two-year moratorium,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The demand made by COAI is exactly the same as the one made in an unsigned paper submitted to the Telecom Ministry on the day Bharti Airtel chief Sunil Bharti Mittal and his brother Rajan Mittal met Prasad and Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash. Billionaire <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/tag\/mukesh-ambani\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mukesh Ambani<\/a>\u2019s Jio, which is also a member of COAI, has been contesting claims of the inability of telcos to pay the statutory dues, for which they ideally should have provisioned in accounts in view of a legal dispute.<\/p>\n<p>Jio says COAI shot off the first representation to the government on October 30 without waiting for its comments. It feels COAI for the benefit of some of its members is using a \u201cthreatening and blackmailing\u201d tone in its communication to the government on the non-existent crisis in the sector following the Supreme Court ruling on payment of statutory dues.<\/p>\n<p>Jio has separately written to Prasad opposing any bailout to telecom companies at taxpayer\u2019s expense and asserted the COAI should not be considered an association representing the industry. It has accused COAI of writing to government \u201cunder the influence of two of its members in furtherance of their vested interests\u201d and accused the association of acting as a \u201cmouthpiece of two service providers\u201d and harboring a negative bias towards Jio. There was no case for seeking any financial support from the government after the industry exhausted all its legal recourse, it feels.<\/p>\n<p>Mathews in the October 31 letter stated that the support \u201cwill go a long way to ensure that the sector can start the path of recovery from the current situation over time and serve the cause of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/tag\/digital-india\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Digital India<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the telecom sector staring at a massive Rs 1.4 lakh crore payout following a Supreme Court order, the unsigned memorandum to the government had asked it not to press for adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dispute payment in its entirety, sources said adding the note argues that it could not be the intent of the government to enrich itself by charging licence fee and SUC on non-licensed revenue or income. In the worst-case scenario, it has requested the government to levy only the principal amount (without any interest or penalty) pertaining to only license fee (not spectrum usage charges) that should be allowed to be paid over a period of 10 years without interest. It sought a two-year moratorium on spectrum payments beyond April 2020 till March 2022, to ease the cash flow pressures on the industry without compromising the net present value of spectrum dues to the government. This will allow continuity of business investment in critical network deployment and purchase of additional spectrum, it said. It further sought a reduction in licence fee from 8 per cent of annual revenues to 3 per cent, and said that the balance 5 per cent representing USO contribution be waived or suspended till the current unutilised fund of Rs 50,000 crore is used.<\/p>\n<div class=\"common-bottom-text\">\n<p>Get live <a href=\"https:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/market\/stock-market\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stock Prices<\/a> from BSE and NSE and latest NAV, portfolio of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/mutual-funds-india\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mutual Funds<\/a>, calculate your tax by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/income-tax-calculator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Income Tax Calculator<\/a>, know market\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/market\/stock-market\/nse-top-gainers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Top Gainers<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/market\/stock-market\/nse-top-losers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Top Losers<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/mutual-funds-india\/equity-funds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Best Equity Funds<\/a>. Like us on <a href=\" https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thefinancialexpress\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a> and follow us on <a href=\" https:\/\/twitter.com\/FinancialXpress\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>[ad_2]<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Jio has separately written to Prasad opposing any bailout to telecom companies at taxpayer\u2019s expense and asserted the COAI should not be considered an association representing the industry. (REUTERS) Ignoring its member Reliance Jio\u2019s contentions, telecom industry association COAI has shot off an \u2018addendum\u2019 to its earlier demands and has now sought a complete [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":348,"featured_media":1157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/348"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}