Supreme Court allows Centre to examine Vodafone Idea’s plea against DoT’s AGR demands

admin — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 07:18:00 +0000

The dispute over AGR, particularly its inclusion of non-telecom income, led to massive liabilities on telecom operators, with Vodafone Idea being among the hardest hit.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Supreme Court on Monday (October 27, 2025) permitted the Centre to consider telecom major Vodafone Idea Ltd’s plea seeking quashing of the Department of Telecommunication’s additional adjusted gross revenue (AGR) demands for the period up to 2016–17, observing the issue falls within the policy domain of the government.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran passed the order while hearing a writ petition filed by Vodafone Idea challenging fresh AGR-related demands raised by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).

The company contended that these additional claims were unsustainable as the liabilities had already been crystallised by the apex court’s 2019 judgment on AGR dues.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, informed the court that the government now holds 49% equity in Vodafone Idea and that around 20 crore consumers depend on its services.

He submitted that given these circumstances, the Centre was willing to examine the issues raised by the company to ensure consumer interests are safeguarded.

The Bench noted the petition has been filed seeking the quashing of additional AGR demands for 2016-17 and further directions to comprehensively reassess all dues.

“The solicitor general on instructions states that taking into consideration, the change in circumstances that is the Centre acquiring 49 percent equity and 20 crore customers utilising the service of the petitioner, the Union is willing to examine the issues raised by the petitioner (company),” the Bench said.

“Taking into the consideration the status of the case now, the government has infused substantial equity into the company and that it will have direct bearing on 20 crores customers, we see no issue in the Union reconsidering the issue and taking appropriate steps,” the CJI said in the order.

The Bench clarified that the issue fell under the policy domain of the Union and said, “There is no reason as to why that Union should be prevented from doing, with that view of the matter, we dispose of the writ petition.”

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Vodafone Idea, argued that the DoT’s additional demand of ₹5,606 crore for FY 2016–17 was unsustainable since the dues had already been determined following the Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict.

The AGR represents the income figure used to calculate the licence fees and spectrum usage charges payable by telecom operators to the government.

The dispute over AGR, particularly its inclusion of non-telecom income, led to massive liabilities on telecom operators, with Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel being among the hardest hit.

Published – October 27, 2025 12:48 pm IST

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Setback For Telecom Firms In Supreme Court, Plea On AGR Rejected

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 06:05:15 +0000

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected telecom companies’ plea to re-compute adjusted gross revenues, or AGRs, amid a long-standing dispute over payment of dues to the government. The companies raised concerns about the financial crisis affecting all firms.

Vodafone India, Bharti Airtel, and other companies had filed a curative petition against the court’s October 2019 verdict, in which they were directed to pay the government Rs 92,000 crore within three months. The current petitions are against a September 2020 order requiring payment of AGR dues over a 10-year period; 10 per cent of the total by March 31 every year.

In their petition today the telecom firms claimed a grave error by the Department of Telecommunications, or DoT, in calculating those dues – licence fees and spectrum charges.

Reports indicate the DoT-calculated AGR dues total over Rs 1 lakh crore; Airtel is believed to owe Rs 43,980 crore and Vodafone Rs 58,254 crore. But per the companies’ own calculations, Airtel said it owed only Rs 13,004 crore and Vodafone claimed dues of only Rs 21,533 crore.

Similar recalculations were made against dues owed by other companies, including Tata Teleservices. The telecom firms also complained about the court’s “arbitrary penalty”.

Computation of AGR is the basis for revenue-sharing between telecom firms and the government, which receives money for allotting licences and spectrum usage.

The DoT calculates the government’s share as a percentage of the AGR. This amounts to three to five per cent in spectrum usage fees and eight per cent as licensing fees.

But how exactly the AGR is calculated has been a contentious point for nearly two decades now, with the telecom firms insisting it must only include core revenue. The government, however, includes all revenue, including those from non-telecom channels, in its calculation.

In 2019 the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the government, and ordered the telecom firms to pay up Rs 92,000 crore within 180 days. That order hit the telecom industry hard; Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel posted record losses in the following days.

In July 2022 Airtel said it had opted to defer payment of approximately Rs 3,000 crore in AGR up to FY 2018/19 – not tabulated in the court’s 2019 order – by four years. A week earlier Vodafone said it too had decided to defer payment of additional AGR dues of Rs. 8,837 crore by four years.

This was after the DoT raised an AGR demand for two financial years beyond 2016/17, which were not covered by the Supreme Court’s order.

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Adjusted Gross Revenue – Artifex.News

Supreme Court allows Centre to examine Vodafone Idea’s plea against DoT’s AGR demands

Setback For Telecom Firms In Supreme Court, Plea On AGR Rejected