Airtel plays wait and watch on AGR dues even as rival Vodafone Idea moves Supreme Court
“In previous petitions opened by Telcos, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal appeal. Airtel is now in a waiting and watch mode,” he said. Mint He spoke for this story.
The Executive was talking about August 2024, when the Apex Court rejected healing petitions opened by other operators who wanted to relax in the previous decision of the Vodafone IDEA and Apex court. This was the 2019 order that approved the government’s decision on corrected gross revenues, including non -telecom income, such as telephone sales. The Landmark decision left Telekom operators with developing dues, where the war is still continuing.
In May this year, the upper court rejected the claim of Vodafone’s idea to waive. La45,000 CRORE INTEREST AND PENALTY La83,400 CRORE AGR Dues. Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices also participated in the opinion of Vodafone in the petition canceled by the Supreme Court.
When the idea of Vodafone moved the upper court a few weeks ago, the war on legal dues was resurrected. Their controversy said why other dues were requested again, based on the calculations of the Telecom department, as the court locked Vodafone IDEA’s networks until 2016-17 on 18 March 2020. In the AGR decision, the Supreme Court added that the self -assessment or re -evaluation of the fees will not be allowed.
Agr is the share of a gross income that is taken into consideration for regulatory payments of a telecom operator. Operators pay 8% of the government aggs as a license fee for digital Bharat Nidhi, a fund to increase the connection in insufficient service areas. The Agr dispute circulates around the difference in the definition and calculation of this number.
A government official said that Airtel has not been challenging additional demands so far. “Additional request for AGR, the Supreme Court decision was not announced during the 2020,” he said.
Another industrial manager said that Airtel would wait to see if Vodafone’s petition was accepted in the upper court. “If the court accepts the appeal, Telco may join. However, until then, the appeal will not be rejected for the last time.” He said.
Vodafone IDEA’s petition is scheduled to be heard in the upper court on September 19.
The queries sent to the Airtel and Telecommunications Department by E -Post did not respond until the press time.
As of the end of March, Bhati Airtel’s postponed payment obligation against AGR LaAccording to the FY25 year report, 38,604 Crore. The Company established AGR provisions. La35,211 CRORE, AIRTEL’s possible payment obligations in the future. However, this provision La22.379 is related to Telenor and Tata Teleservices Ltd, which combines with Airtel.
In his annual report, the company said that it recognizes the existence of compensation against these provisions. This means that Airtel has the right to receive compensation if any responsibility from Telenor and Tata Telesvices arises.
Telco, which has 362.8 million subscribers in FY25, and the highest average income per user (ARPU) LaAGR has increased its provisions from June 250 La7.516 Crore in FY25 La2,524 crore per previous financial year. The company also showed some quantity LaAccording to the annual report, in demand from the Telekom department and other regulatory requests and evaluations 8.444 Crore.
A conditional responsibility is a possible future expense or loss, depending on the outcome of an uncertain event. This becomes a provision in which the company needs to pay and the amount can be reasonably estimated.
“Additional demand for the period is mainly related to the AGR decision, which is mainly related to the spectrum usage fees,” Airtel said in his FY25 -year report. He said.
In April, Bharti Airtel called on the Telekom department to transform some of the network dues into self-esteem, which will give the government a 3-4% stake in India’s second largest telecom operator. In August, the company said it was ready to pay the dues, but it is waiting for the government to extend the same comfort to other telecom operators.
“We wrote to the government to expand the same relaxation as all other teleclists, but this is a decision that the government will take and we will comply with the decision they will take.” “In this context, I can say that we have a room to make any payment required.”
Vittal’s comments for a flat -playing area, after the government is almost transformed, the idea of Vodafone has about 49% shares in the idea of Vodafone. LaEarlier this year, in February 2023 and April, 53,083 Crore stock in two tranches. However, Airtel has a strong financial position compared to the idea of Vodafone.
The AGR problem brought significant financial coercion for India’s Telekom operators. Telecom department for Vodafone idea, La58,000 Crore, exceeding the company’s estimation La21,500 crore. Original demand for Airtel LaTATA is 63,000 Crore, including TATA’s obligations in the spectrum acquired from TATA. TATA Teleservices dues La16,798 Crore.
