Bharti Airtel pays an additional Rs 8,004 cr towards AGR dues

With the latest payment, the company has paid Rs 18,004 crore in all.

Bharti Airtel on Saturday (29 February) said it carried out self-assessment from FY 2006-07 up to 31 December 2019 and interest thereon up to 29 February 2020 in line with the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) judgement, Bharti Airtel said.

Accordingly, the telecom major has paid an amount of Rs 3,004 crore towards the full and final settlement of its AGR dues in addition to Rs 10,000 crore already paid on 17 February 2020 on behalf of the Bharti Group of companies.

The company added that it has also deposited an additional amount of Rs 5,000 crore as an ad-hoc payment (subject to subsequent refund or adjustment) to cover differences, if any, arising from the reconciliation exercise with the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).

"Based on the aforesaid payment we have now complied with AGR judgement and the directions in the order of the Supreme Court (SC) dated 24 October 2019," the company said.

The media reported that Bharti Airtel owes nearly Rs 35,000 crore in statutory dues, including licence fee, interest on penalties and spectrum usage charge.

SC on 14 February 2020 directed telecom providers to pay their AGR dues to DoT by the next court hearing on 17 March 2020. SC on 24 October 2019 ruled in favor of the government on the AGR issue, with grave revenue implications to the tune of over Rs 92,000 crore for the ailing telecom sector.

Bharti Airtel reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,035.20 crore in Q3 December 2019 as against a net profit of Rs 86.20 crore reported in Q3 December 2018. Net sales rose 8.5% to Rs 21,947.10 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018.

Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa.

Bharti Airtel fell 1.46% to end at Rs 524.05 on Friday, 28 February 2020.

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