Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel lose AGR dues case as SC dismisses pleas

The Supreme Court has dealt a significant blow to telecom operators such as Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, dashing their hopes of securing a reduction in statutory dues.

The apex court rejected a series of review petitions filed by telecom firms challenging its 2021 verdict, which had refused to allow corrections in the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) computation of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, including alleged miscalculations and unintended additions. With this ruling, the companies have exhausted their legal avenues, according to a report by The Economic Times.

“We have carefully perused the review petitions as also the grounds in support thereof. In our opinion, no case for review of the order dated Jul. 23, 2021, passed in Miscellaneous Applications is made out. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of,” stated the Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Abhay S Oka, and Justice Sanjay Kumar.

Following the verdict, Vodafone Idea’s shares declined, trading 2.43 per cent lower at Rs 8.44 per share at 10.45 am on the BSE Sensex, which itself was down by 307 points or 0.4 per cent. Bharti Airtel’s stock also dropped by 0.2 per cent to Rs 1,710.10 per share. Despite the setback, sources indicated that curative petitions would be filed to contest the dismissal.

The telecom companies contended that the government’s calculations contained “glaring errors”, asserting that payments already made had not been accounted for in determining their outstanding AGR liabilities, The Economic Times mentioned.

“It is inconceivable that even errors/inadvertent additions by the Respondent-DoT to the AGR dues have not been allowed to be corrected. It is a travesty of justice that the Petitioner is restrained from questioning arithmetical errors/omissions which are going to cost the Petitioner approximately Rs 25,000 crores (Rs 5,932 of principal plus interest, penalty and interest on penalty),” Vodafone Idea stated in its plea.

In 2021, the Supreme Court declined to allow revisions in AGR dues calculations. Telecom firms later sought a fresh hearing, claiming computational errors in the dues, which had exceeded Rs 1 trillion.

Additionally, in September last year, the Supreme Court dismissed petitions from multiple telecom operators, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, seeking a reassessment of AGR dues. In 2022, both Airtel and Vodafone Idea had urged the Supreme Court to hear their curative petitions in an open court, contesting an earlier judgment that denied them the opportunity to rectify what they termed as miscalculations in DoT’s AGR assessments.