Tata Tele Maharashtra Q4 losses at Rs 874 cr

New Delhi, Jun 2 () Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) on Tuesday posted a loss of about Rs 874 crore for the January-March quarter due to lower revenues and an extra provision of Rs 548.3 crore towards licence fee, spectrum usage charges, interest, and penalty.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 579.5 crore in the year-ago period.

The company said that its board has approved additional fund raising by way of issuing redeemable shares to the promoters on preferential basis up to Rs 2,500 crore and/or non-convertible debentures up to Rs 2,500 crore, subject to shareholders' nod.

The total income of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) for the last quarter of 2019-20 stood at Rs 261.4 crore, nearly 20 per cent lower than the corresponding quarter previous year.

"Further, during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, the company has evaluated the AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) obligations and reassessed the estimates as a result of more information or experience gained to reflect the current best estimate...

"During the quarter ended March 31, 2020, the company has made net additional provision of Rs 548.35 crores towards LF (licence fee), SUC (spectrum usage charges), interest, penalty and interest on penalty as applicable, and the same has been disclosed as an exceptional item," the company said in a regulatory filing.

Accordingly, the provisions pertaining to AGR matter as on March 31, 2020, stand at Rs 2,423.3 crore and disclosed as provision for contingencies, it said.

On the AGR dues, the company further noted that a modification petition has been filed by Department of Telecom (DoT) in the Supreme Court on March 16, 2020, with respect to giving a 20-year period for recovery of licence fee dues and to cease the interest after a particular date.

"As on date, the matter is still not heard. On March 18, 2020, the SC held that no exercise of self-assessment/re-assessment of the dues which were placed before the SC is permitted and the said dues need to be deposited, as ordered in the judgement.

"However, the prayer of DoT to allow it to recover the dues over 20 year period is pending and the court has indicated that it would consider such prayer of DoT to recover the dues over a longer period on the next date," it said.

For the full year ended March 2020, the losses climbed to Rs 3,714.1 crore from Rs 668 crore in the the previous fiscal. The total income for the full year FY2020 fell 18 per cent to Rs 1,088.3 crore.

The company further said that its Board of Directors has approved raising of additional funds by means of issuing redeemable Preference Shares to the promoters on preferential basis (up to Rs 2,500 crores); and/or non-convertible debentures (up to Rs 2,500 crores).

The company, in a BSE filing on May 28, had stated that its Board will consider proposal to raise additional funds of up to Rs 5,000 crore.

Meanwhile the Board has also approved further extension of the term of redemption of the non-cumulative non-convertible redeemable preference shares worth Rs 2,018 crore issued earlier to Tata Teleservices Ltd on preferential basis by 24 months from September 18, 2020 with an option to the company to redeem at such earlier date as may be decided by the board or finance committee. MBI MR MR