A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai also rejected the plea of the telcos seeking to list the curative petitions for open court hearing.
The plea’s dismissal means the companies will have no option but to cough up the money by March 31, 2031, as the apex court had earlier allowed for the payment to be made over 10 years, starting March 2021.
In July 2021, too, SC had dismissed a plea by the telcos seeking a “correction of errors”. The court had held that the demand raised by the DoT with respect to AGR dues would be final. It also said that telecom companies shall not raise any dispute and there shall not be any reassessment.
AGR dues: Vi needs to pay Rs 70k crore, Airtel nearly Rs 30k crore
Last Oct, the top court had taken note of submissions of some of the telecom companies seeking listing of their pleas on the AGR due issue. The telcos had referred to alleged “errors in the arithmetic calculation” for arriving at the AGR-related dues by the DoT.
“Application for listing the curative petitions in open court is rejected. We have gone through the curative petitions and the connected documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court in Rupa Ashok Hurra v Ashok Hurra. The curative petitions are dismissed,” the bench said in an order dated Aug 30, which was uploaded on Thursday.
The move will mean that Vodafone Idea, already crippled by losses, will have to cough up nearly Rs 70,000 crore. The company, which raised funds recently, has debt of over Rs 2.3 lakh crore, including AGR and statutory payments. The apex court’s order sent Vi stock crashing by as much as 19% on BSE, closing at Rs 10.44.
Sources said that Vodafone Idea management is “not unduly worried” by the decision, especially as “none of the company’s revival plans hinged on the outcome” of the curative petition. “The company has just raised Rs 20,000 crore, primarily through follow-on public offering (FPO) and some promoter funding. It is in the process of deploying the funds for network expansion. Simultaneously, the steps for raising debt remains on course. There is not much need to panic,” a source said, requesting anonymity.
Airtel has estimated AGR dues of under Rs 30,000 crore, but remained unscathed by the ruling with its shares gaining 1% to Rs 1,672 as its better financial position is seen to help it overcome fresh pressure. Reliance Jio’s late entry has helped it avoid any major outstanding dues.
According to the revenue-sharing model introduced by the Centre in 1999, telcos have to pay a certain portion of their AGR as licence fee. Initially, 15% AGR was fixed as licence fee under revenue-sharing, which was reduced to 13% and then to 8% in 2013.
The contentious issue of AGR dues arose when the apex court in Oct 2019 dismissed the plea of telecom companies that AGR should include only core telecom services and exclude revenue from other sources. SC had accepted the Centre’s contention that AGR should include dividends, handset sales, rent and profit from the sale of scrap, apart from revenue from services.