The Supreme Court (SC) of India has said that it will hear on the matter of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues in two weeks. The matter was raised by the telcos earlier in January, saying that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has assessed the dues wrongly. It is worthy to note that last year, the Supreme Court had ruled that it won’t entertain the recalculation of the dues and would go with the final amount that DoT had assessed. Thus, if the apex court is ready to hear out the telcos, it can be considered a big win for the industry.
AGR Dues Reassessed by Telcos Point Flaws in the Calculation by DoT
According to an ET Telecom report, the verdict of SC would finally bring closure on the matter for the industry. It all started when Bharti Airtel approached the court saying that DoT had made multiple errors while calculating AGR dues. The telco’s AGR assessment was Rs 13,004 crore against the DoT’s Rs 43,980 crore. Airtel has already paid Rs 18,004 crore out of the total dues. Following Airtel, Vodafone Idea (Vi), using the same points as made by the former operator, said that according to its assessment, the AGR dues should have been Rs 21,533 crore instead of the DoT’s calculation of Rs 58,400 crore. Vi has already paid Rs 7,854 crore out of its total dues. Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) also said that DoT’s assessment of the AGR dues is wrong. The telcos dues were assessed at Rs 16,798 crore, out of which it has already paid Rs 4,197 crore. Any reduction in the AGR dues would help both Airtel and Vi expand their businesses faster. It would further reduce the stress on Vi, who is facing a substantial amount of subscriber loss every quarter that passes by. The company is already looking to raise Rs 25,000 crore via debt and equity for surviving its financial crisis.
