New Delhi: After Supreme Court rap, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has ordered firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to clear dues before Friday midnight. The DoT, which faced the ire of the Supreme Court for putting on hold recovery of dues from telecom companies, started issuing circle or zone-wise demand notices to firms, an order seen by PTI said.

The order asked telcos to clear dues by 11.59 pm on Friday. One of the telecom operators, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the receipt of the said order from the circle. While in all, 15 entities owe the government R1.47 lakh crore — R92,642 crore in unpaid licence fee and another R55,054 crore in outstanding spectrum usage charges, it is not immediately clear just how much of that has been sought by the government by midnight tonight.