‘RCom has no AGR liability as it incurred losses in past 10 years’

Reliance Communications (RCom) incurred losses during the past 10 years and hence the company has no adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liability, its Resolution Professional (RP) informed the Supreme Court.

On the AGR liabilities of Sistema Shyam Teleservices Limited (SSTL), the RP said that SSTL has a separate legal existence and only its telecom business was merged with RCom.

As per the agreement dated November 2, 2015 (for demerger, transfer and vesting of SSTL’s telecom business), the liabilities were transferred to RCom with October 31, 2017 as the appointed date of the merger. The merger got the Department of Telecommunications’ approval on October 21, 2017.

The RP also informed the apex court on Tuesday that DoT’s claims were admitted as “operational debt” under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP).

On August 2, SSTL had informed the Supreme Court that RCom was liable to pay its AGR dues as its entire telecom business was acquired by the Anil Ambani-led company in 2017. SSTL had also calculated its AGR liabilities at ₹73 lakh, prior to the merger, and had paid the amount.

The telecom department had calculated RCom’s dues to be about ₹25,000 crore, of which nearly ₹222 crore was due from SSTL.

Deloitte’s Anish Niranjan Nanavaty is the RP for RCom’s bankruptcy process.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has scheduled August 10 as the next date to hear the approval of Reliance Infratel Ltd’s resolution plan, and that of RCom and Reliance Telecom for August 19.

Earlier in March, the Committee of Creditors (CoC), tasked with finding buyers for RCom, approved a resolution plan of all the group companies with an absolute majority.

READ THE STORY: RCom lenders okay resolution plan

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) and Delhi-based UV Asset Reconstruction Company (UVARC) had emerged as the highest bidders for the assets of RCom and its subsidiaries with a combined bid amount of ₹23,000 crore.

RCom was referred to the NCLT in May last year after the creditors did not approve an offer from RJio for its assets.

ALSO READ: Anil Ambani to pay $100 million in conditional order for Chinese banks: UK court