Vodafone, Idea and Airtel to repay 92000 crore dues, reconsideration petition dismissed

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the reconsideration petition, giving a major blow to Vodafone, Idea and Bharti Airtel. The Supreme Court rejected the petition and made it clear that the telecom companies would have to pay Rs 92,000 crore.

Earlier, the apex court had dismissed Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel's appeal for open hearing on the issue of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). The two companies had requested the court to review the order to pay the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) about Rs 92,000 crore as penalty.

Telecom Companies Review Petition Rejected In Supreme Court

The Supreme Court had on October 24 ruled that non-telecom revenue should also be included in the AGR to calculate the payment of license and spectrum fees. The decision increased the liability of telecom companies to the government. 

This is the reason that Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea have announced to increase tariffs since December. After these two, Reliance Jio also announced to increase the mobile tariff from next month.

The court in its order on October 24 upheld the definition of AGR given by DOT. Thus ended the 14-year-old legal battle between the telecom companies and the government. The demand letters have been issued by DOT to these companies about a week ago.

The cabinet also approved a proposal to postpone the payment of spectrum instalment for two years while giving relief to telecom companies struggling with financial crisis. Giving information about the decision, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, Telecom companies are exempted from spectrum instalment payments for two years 2020-21 and 2021-22. 

According to sources, the decision of the government will give a relief of Rs 42,000 crore to telecom company Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio.