The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is currently reviewing Bharti Airtel’s request to convert its statutory dues into equity, with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) also involved in the evaluation process, according to the Union Minister of Communications.
The minister stated that a final decision will be taken once the DoT concludes its analysis. Airtel’s application falls under the 2021 telecom sector relief package, which allows telecom operators to convert interest on deferred payments into equity held by the government.
Airtel formally submitted its equity conversion request earlier this year as part of a broader strategy to reduce debt and ensure equal treatment in the application of relief measures across the sector.
Further, the reforms offer a four-year moratorium on spectrum and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, along with an option to convert the interest portion of deferred payments into equity. This moratorium will end by September 2025 for spectrum dues and by March–April 2026 for AGR dues.
In parallel, Airtel has aggressively reduced its liabilities through prepayments. In the past month, it cleared Rs 59.85 billion of spectrum dues from the 2024 auctions, bringing its spectrum-related debt down to Rs 520 billion and reducing its borrowing cost to 7.22 per cent.
In total, the company has prepaid Rs 259.81 billion in financial year 2024-25 (FY25) so far and Rs 666.65 billion cumulatively. These prepayments, most of which were made nearly seven years ahead of schedule, have eliminated over Rs 1.16 trillion in future instalments originally due until 2031.
