Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel suffered a major setback on Monday as the Supreme Court dismissed their writ petitions seeking exemption from interest on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues. A bench led by Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan rejected the telecom giants’ pleas, describing the petitions as “misconceived.”
Vodafone Idea had approached the Supreme Court earlier this month, seeking relief of over Rs 45,000 crore in AGR-related liabilities to ensure its survival. Bharti Airtel followed with a similar plea, asking for relief on an “equitable basis.”. The apex court had previously also refused to grant any relief to the telecom company. While the company noted that the government had converted a portion of its dues—about Rs 39,000 crore—into equity, it still owes nearly Rs 1.19 lakh crore in spectrum and AGR-related liabilities.
Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom also moved the Supreme Court seeking a waiver of interest and penalties on AGR dues amounting to ₹34,745 crore, based on equity considerations. Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had also declined to provide any further relief on AGR dues, citing the apex court’s 2020 judgment and the government’s support to Vodafone Idea through equity conversion.
The long-standing dispute over the definition and calculation of AGR was settled by the Supreme Court in its 2019 ruling. In a 2020 ruling, the court had given telecom operators 10 years to pay off a total of Rs 93,520 crore in AGR-related dues to the government. Despite requests from telcos, the DoT’s plea to extend the repayment window to 20 years was rejected by the court.
Telecom companies had also challenged the method of AGR calculation, pointing out arithmetic errors, but the Supreme Court dismissed those claims. Vodafone Idea’s curative petition on the matter was also rejected by the court in September 2024.
In its latest attempt, Vodafone Idea filed another petition in April, seeking a waiver of interest on AGR dues. The court dismissed the plea on Monday, calling it “shocking” and deeming it “misconceived.” At the time of filing this report, Vodafone Idea shares were down over 9%, trading at Rs 6.70. (With ANI Inputs)
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