SC rejects AGR dues miscalculation plea by telcos

The Supreme Court has rejected a batch of overview petitions by telcos attempting for to put of dwelling aside its 2021 resolution that refused to permit ‘rectification” of arithmetical errors/inadvertent additions within the telecom department’s calculation of the adjusted corrupt earnings (AGR) dues

The apex court had on September 19 final year disregarded a batch of curative petitions filed by telcos towards imposition of penalty and curiosity on penalty within the SC’s September 2019 screech, to boot to a correction in what carriers claimed had been arithmetical errors within the DoT’s calculations.

This deals a vast setback to telcos address Vodafone Thought and Bharti Airtel who had been hoping that a vast a part of their statutory dues would fetch knocked off and also beget no lawful recourse left aside from filing curative petitions towards dismissal of their overview petitions on January 29.

Shares of loss-making Vodafone Thought slumped 5.1% to terminate at Rs8.21 on the BSE Friday, underpforming broader markets which fell 0.3%. Shares of financially stronger Airtel though closed 0.2% increased at Rs1717.15.

Upholding the DoT’s calculations on quantum of AGR quiz, a bench comprising chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Abhay S. Oka and Justice Sanjay Kumar, “We have carefully perused the review petitions as also the grounds in support thereof. In our opinion, no case for review of the order dated July 23, 2021 passed in Miscellaneous Applications is made out. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed.”

Though the order was passed on January 28, it was uploaded on the SC website on late Thursday.

Voda Idea in its press statement said that “there were Miscellaneous applications, Review Petitions and a Curative Petition filed in the AGR matter at the SC from time to time by the company and other telecom operators, mostly dealing with the need for allowing correction of manifest errors in AGR demands. These petitions had mostly been disposed of, the last being the dismissal of the curative Ppetition for which we had intimated the Stock Exchanges on September 19, 2024. However, there was one pending Review Petition dated August 23, 2021, which has now been dismissed, which closes all AGR related matters at the SC.”

Seeking rectification of what they called arithmetical errors, the telecom service providers had said that there were some “evident errors” within the quiz raised by the DoT, wherein the portions that beget already been paid by the companies weren’t taken into chronicle for computing renowned AGR dues.

In maintaining with the overview petitions, there modified into as soon as double counting of some earnings items within the AGR earnings requires. This even covered a area where a resolve of earnings had been added twice to the earnings of the companies, leading to an identical quantity being subjected twice to quiz of licence charge/spectrum utilization prices. Whereas they had been eligible for deduction of public switched phone network linked call prices from its corrupt earnings, certain deductions weren’t granted by the department, they added.

Extra, the carriers in conjunction with Vodafone Thought had sought a route to the DoT to “form a time fling say to reconcile the quiz and form correction of manifest/clerical/arithematical errors.”

Of the full Rs 1.47 lakh crore of AGR dues which the telecom operators had been required to pay by January 2020 as a results of the apex court’s screech, nearly 75% comprised curiosity, penalty and curiosity on penalty, the companies stated. The licence charge dues totalled Rs 92,642 crore while the spectrum utilization charge modified into as soon as Rs 55,054 crore.

DoT had support then estimated money-strapped Vodafone Thought’s dues at Rs 58,300 crore, nevertheless the telco had self-assessed the dues at Rs 21,500 crore and has to this point paid Rs 7,900 crore. Airtel’s dues, as per the DoT, stood at Rs 44,000 crore, when compared with the operator’s beget evaluate of round Rs13,000 crore. Airtel has to this point paid Rs 18,000 crore, which incorporates a Rs 5,000-crore advert hoc charge.

The prime court had on September 1, 2020 asked the companies wanted to pay their arrears over a 10-year length, after paying 10% of the AGR dues upfront by March 31, 2021.

Thereafter, the deferred charge cycle would birth from 2026 and trot till 2031 with the ten% quantity to be paid by March 31 yearly. The SC had then stated no revaluation of AGR dues will likely be allowed and any default would invite curiosity and penalty, alongside with contempt of court prices.