Supreme Court dismisses Vodafone Idea and Airtel pleas for waiving interest on AGR dues

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed writ petitions by Vodafone Idea and Airtel for exemption of interest on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan dismissed the pleas calling the petitions “misconceived”.

Vodafone Idea had approached the Supreme Court earlier this month, seeking relief of over Rs 45,000 crore in relation to its AGR dues. The apex court has earlier as well refused to given any relief to the telecom company. The company also noted that the government had converted a portion of its dues, about Rs 39,000 crore into equity, it still owed nearly Rs 1.19 lakh crore in spectrum and AGR-related dues.

Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom, too moved the supreme court for waiver of interest and penalties on AGR dues amounting to Rs 34,745 crore on equity basis. Earlier, the Department of Telecom had refused to give any further relief on AGR dues, citing the apex court’s 2020 judgment and government support to Vodafone Idea through equity conversion.

The dispute over the definition and calculation of AGR ends with the ruling of the Supreme Court in 2019. In 2020, the apex court has set a time line of 10-year for telcos to clear AGR dues to the government in tranches. On requests from telcos, the DoT had earlier urged the court to extend the repayment window to 20 years which was refused by the top court.

Telecom companies also challenged the method of calculation of AGR, citing arithmetic errors but the apex court dismissed those claims as well. The curative petition of Vodafone idea on the issue was also rejected by the top court in September 2024.

In its latest move Vodafone Idea again moved with a petition before the apex court in April to waive off the interest on AGR dues, which was rejected on Monday by the court, calling the petition ‘shocking’ and deems it ‘misconceived’.
At the time of filing this report Vodafone Idea share were down over 9 per cent, trading at Rs 6.70. (ANI)