new delhi senior officials of the telecom department and other key ministries met on sunday to discuss urgent relief measures that can be extended to the telecom industry which is battling an unprecedented crisis on account of massive statutory dues it owes the governmentthe meeting held at the department of telecom lasted for over an hour and is said to have deliberated on options before the government to provide muchneeded lifeline to the agrhit industrytelecom czar and chairman of bharti airtel sunil mittal had last week made an appeal to the government for cut in levies and taxes to pull the sector out of what he had described as an unprecedented crisistelecom department officials remained tightlipped after highlevel government meeting on sunday where officials from niti aayog and finance ministry are said to have been presentdot secretary anshu prakash remained unavailable for commentsthe crucial meeting comes at a time when the telecom companies are staring at rs 147 lakh crore in unpaid dues rs 92642 crore in unpaid licence fee and another rs 55054 crore in outstanding spectrum usage chargesof the estimated dues that include interest and penalty for late payments airtel and vodafone idea owe about 60 percentwhile airtel has raised 3 billion in last few months and is expected to have sufficient funds to tide over the agr crisis vodafone idea that has only paid just seven per cent of its total rs 53000 crore statutory dues remains deeply vulnerablethe government meanwhile is looking to strike a balance between complying with the supreme court order on agr dues ensuring health of the sector and safeguarding consumer interestboth mittal and vil chairman kumar mangalam birla continued to meet top government functionaries throughout last week to seek prompt measures that would offer a breather to the sectora top government official had said recently that attempts are being made to balance the need for health of the sector consumer interest while complying with the supreme court order on statutory duesalthough the official had not elaborated sector watchers had said the statement alludes to the government keen on ensuring adequate competition by retaining the present threeplusone model of competition three private players and one public sector companythe statutory dues arose after the supreme court in october last year upheld the governments position on including revenue from noncore businesses in calculating the annual adjusted gross revenue agr of telecom companies a share of which is paid as licence and spectrum fee to the exchequerthe supreme court earlier this month rejected a plea by mobile carriers such as bharti airtel and vodafone idea ltd for extension in the payment schedule and asked all of them to deposit an estimated rs 147 lakh crore in past dues for spectrum and licencesit threatened to initiate contempt proceedings against top executives of these firms for nonpaymentsome telecom firms are already struggling with mounting losses and debt and the additional liability has raised concerns of them defaulting on existing loansvodafone idea has so far paid