The
Supreme Court has dealt a significant blow to telecom operators such as
Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, dashing their hopes of securing a reduction in
statutory dues.
The
apex court rejected a series of review petitions filed by telecom firms
challenging its 2021 verdict, which had refused to allow corrections in the
Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) computation of adjusted gross revenue
(AGR) dues, including alleged miscalculations and unintended additions. With
this ruling, the companies have exhausted their legal avenues.
“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 Jul. 23, 2021,
passed in Miscellaneous Applications is made out. The review petitions are,
accordingly, dismissed. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed
of,” stated the Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, Justice
Abhay S Oka, and Justice Sanjay Kumar.
Following
the verdict, Vodafone Idea’s shares declined, trading 2.43 per cent lower at Rs
8.44 per share at 10.45 am on the BSE Sensex, which itself was down by 307
points or 0.4 per cent. Bharti Airtel’s stock also dropped by 0.2 per cent to
Rs 1,710.10 per share. Despite the setback, sources indicated that curative
petitions would be filed to contest the dismissal.
The
telecom companies contended that the government’s calculations contained
“glaring errors”, asserting that payments already made had not been accounted
for in determining their outstanding AGR liabilities, The Economic Times
mentioned.
“It
is inconceivable that even errors/inadvertent additions by the Respondent-DoT
to the AGR dues have not been allowed to be corrected. It is a travesty of
justice that the Petitioner is restrained from questioning arithmetical
errors/omissions which are going to cost the Petitioner approximately Rs 25,000
crores (Rs 5,932 of principal plus interest, penalty and interest on penalty),”
Vodafone Idea stated in its plea.
In
2021, the Supreme Court declined to allow revisions in AGR dues calculations.
Telecom firms later sought a fresh hearing, claiming computational errors in
the dues, which had exceeded Rs 1 trillion.
Additionally,
in September last year, the Supreme Court dismissed petitions from multiple
telecom operators, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, seeking a
reassessment of AGR dues. In 2022, both Airtel and Vodafone Idea had urged the
Supreme Court to hear their curative petitions in an open court, contesting an
earlier judgment that denied them the opportunity to rectify what they termed
as miscalculations in DoT’s AGR assessments.