Vodafone Idea’s ghost of dues is back to haunt struggling telco

Cash-strapped, debt-ridden and struggling to retain subscribers, Vodafone-Idea for once seemed to be turning a corner by raising funds, narrowing losses and planning capital expenditure. A ray of hope had emerged with the expectation that the Supreme Court could give it a relief on a huge amount of money it owes to the government as fees and charges. However, those expectations did not bear fruit as the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a batch of pleas by telecom companies, including Vodafone Idea, for re-computation of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of the companies on the basis of which the government collects spectrum and licence fees from them.