As an annual license fee to the government, telecom operators need to pay a certain percentage of their AGR. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is holding meetings with all the operators (Reliance Jio, Infocomm Ltd, Vodafone, Idea and Bharti Airtel Ltd) to arrive at a common and fixed definition. The discussion is being carried out to clearly segregate and define the elements that will be the part of the telecom revenue.

The director general of COAI, S.P. Kochhar said, “A macro definition is in place, but a micro definition of AGR is in the works to identify the non- telecom revenue, which will go into the more granular details.” He also added, “ The idea is to reduce as many disputes as possible, so a negative and positive list is being prepared which will specify the components like revenue from payments bank, rental income and e-commerce platforms, which will be excluded from AGR.”

On the basis of AGR, the License fees and spectrum usage charges (SUC) are paid. Once the AGR will be lowered, it will lead to reduced levies and improved profitability for the Telcos. As per the new concept of Applicable gross revenue (ApGR), revenue from activities and operations other than telecom activities will now be excluded from gross revenue to arrive at the ApGR.