Jio not liable for RCom AGR dues: Government

NEW DELHI: The government has said Reliance Jio, which shares airwaves with bankrupt telecom operator Reliance Communications, cannot be saddled with liability of the latter’s pending adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues. “Shared operator TSPs (telecom service providers) cannot be saddled with the liability to pay the past dues of AGR (adjusted gross revenue) of licensee, that have shared the spectrum with the original licensees,” Minister of State for Communications Sanjay Dhotre told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

He was responding to a question on whether Jio will be held liable to pay spectrum dues of Reliance Communication. The minister cited the September 1 Supreme court order and said that only part of the spectrum of the licensee has been shared with the case of some of operators, which has been approved by the DoT under the Sharing Guidelines, 2015, and there is no provision for the liability of the past dues on the shared operator.