Following the lead from debt stricken Vodafone-Idea, Sunil Bharti Mittal led Airtel has moved the Supreme Court with regards to the AGR payments due. The review petition from Airtel challenges a July 23 order of the Supreme Court which had disallowed rectification of "arithmetical errors" for the calculation of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues. Airtel's total AGR bill stands at over Rs 35,000 cr.
Vi that is facing a ballooning debt crisis has on August 13, urged the SC to allow the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to recalculate the AGR dues. Vi had calculated its remaining AGR dues at around Rs 21,500 crore, the telecom department however arrived at around Rs 58,000 crore.
Centre has given the Indian carriers a bill of rs 1.47 lakh crore to be paid up as AGR dues.
The battle has been ongoing since 2005 when the telecom lobby body, Cellular Operators Association of India challenged the govt's challenged the DoT’s definition for AGR calculation. AGR is the amount telcos are required to pay in the form of ‘revenue share’ to the Centre which is essentially licence fee and spectrum. The govt however contended that the telecom companies 'understated' or reclassified revenues to reduce what is due to the government. The govt then reworked how AGR is calculated and what sources of revenue it would include.