Vodafone, Airtel to move SC over AGR ruling: Report

Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel are set to move the Supreme Court later this week to seek a review of the apex court's judgement, which allowed the Centre to recover adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of about Rs 1.4 lakh crore from them, according to a report by The Economic Times.

The Supreme Court's move may hurt both these telecom operators more as both are currently running in losses. Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel may have to cough up dues of Rs 39,000 crore and over Rs 41,000 crore, respectively. The telecom industry as a whole faces dues worth over Rs 1.4 lakh crore in license fee, spectrum usage charge (SUC), penalties and interest.

Thus, the review petition would include seeking a reduction in the penalties and interest component of the dues, as well as question some components of the non-core items that the Supreme Court says should be included while computing adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of telecom companies.

“Vodafone Idea will file a review petition in next few days and Bharti Airtel will follow suit,” a person familiar with the matter told the newspaper.

According to the report, the two telecom companies may only seek a limited review of the Supreme Court ruling, and won’t challenge the whole order.