The government has resolved the ₹1,553 crore tax demand dispute between State-run RailTel Corporation of India Ltd. and the Department of Telecom, with regards to license fee through the Administration Mechanism for Resolution for CPSEs (AMCRD) Mechanism on Tuesday, March 25, official documents showed.
The demands pertained to the non-telecom revenue has now been withdrawn by the telecom department, under which, it had sought license fees from RailTel worth ₹1,553 crore earlier.
A Supreme Court order dated June 11, 2020, clarified that PSUs not providing mobile services should not be subjected to demands based on the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) judgment applicable to commercial service providers.
RailTel, a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), primarily serves railway operations and provides telecom-related services like bandwidth and leased circuits. It does not provide mobile services to the general public.
Based on this order, DoT had earlier withdrawn similar demands for eight other PSUs with non-access service licenses.
The Committee of Secretaries decided that the ₹1,553 crore demand on RailTel’s non-telecom revenue should be withdrawn in public interest. DoT will inform the Supreme Court about this decision in its next annual AGR compliance affidavit due in April 2025.
