Infocomm says it can't pay BSNL in cash

Reliance Infocomm on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it was unable to pay Rs 84 crore (Rs 840 million) to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd towards charges on incoming international calls, but said it would execute a bank guarantee for the amount.

The apex court had on December 3 asked Reliance Infocomm to pay within four weeks the entire demand of Rs 182.7 crore (Rs 1.83 billion) by BSNL. The state-owned company claimed Infocomm had evaded revenue by re-routing international calls as local.

Reliance Infocomm had to pay Rs 84.7 crore as it had earlier deposited Rs 58 crore (Rs 580 million) and another Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) on the basis of an interim direction of the Delhi high court.

In its last hearing on December 3, the Supreme Court had referred the case back to the division bench of the high court, which will hear the parties.

Specifically, the bench had said the high court would consider BSNL's argument that no one, neither the court nor an arbitrator, except the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal had the jurisdiction to adjudicate this dispute.

The apex court had fixed January 31, 2005 as the outer limit for the high court to give its verdict on the petition filed by Reliance, challenging the demand of Rs 182.7 crore raised by BSNL.