Commuinications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the total dues of Telcos is Rs 55,000 crore, of this about Rs 44,000 crore is under litigation.
 
"The dues include spectrum charges, licence fee, electro-magnetic radiation penalty, fines and testing fee," Prasad told a national TV channel. "The past arrears amount to almost Rs.55,000 crore. Of this, around Rs. 44,000 crore is currently under litigation."

Bharti Airtel, which owes the government Rs. 11,235.5 crore lead the pack of telcos. Followed by Vodafone with Rs. 9,206 crore, Idea Cellular with Rs. 5,435 crore, Tata Teleservices with Rs.3,472 crore, Reliance Communications with Rs. 6,355 crore and Reliance Telecom Rs. 494 crore.

Even state-owned BSNL and MTNL are in the list, with outstanding amounts of Rs. 9,900 crore and Rs. 4,091 crore.

Recently, a CAG report said that the government lost Rs. 12,488 crore on account of under-invoicing of gross revenue by telecom service providers between 2006 and 2010.