The Supreme Court has rejected telcos’ plea to recalculate their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues. The move comes after telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), and Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) had sought rectification of arithmetical errors in the calculation of their AGR dues.
Earlier, the apex court had rejected the self-assessments done by operators and had ruled that the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) calculations were to be deemed as final.
The SC’s latest judgement comes as a big blow to Vi which had raised concerns over its viability if arithmetical errors in AGR dues were not addressed. The telco had linked its viability to reduction of its AGR dues, along with other factors.
According to telcos’ self-assessment, Vi’s AGR dues stood at Rs 215.33 billion. Meanwhile, Airtel self-assessed its dues at Rs 130.03 billion and TTSL at Rs 21.97 billion. All three operators in their petitions had said that these were far less than what the DoT had calculated.
However, as per DoT’s calculation, Vi owes Rs 584 billion, Airtel owes Rs 439.8 billion and Tata Teleservices owes Rs 167.98 billion in AGR dues. Of this, Vi has paid Rs 78.54 billion, Airtel has paid Rs 180.03 billion and Tata Teleservices has paid Rs 41.97 billion.
The telcos now need to pay their balance dues in 10 instalments by March 31, 2031.
