Telecom stocks trade mixed

Shares of telecom companies were in action after the country's apex court reportedly dismissed the review pleas filed by them in the AGR dues case.

Bharti Airtel rose 4.12% to Rs 493.60 while Vodafone Idea crashed 35.66% to Rs 3.88.

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed pleas filed by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to review its earlier judgment that had asked telecom operators to pay their outstanding dues to the government. The review petitions were filed to seek relief on interest and penalty payments in connection to the verdict on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). The deadline for telecom companies to meet the license fee dues as per the apex court's AGR judgement is 23 January 2020.

The Supreme Court in October 2019 had ruled in favor of the government on the AGR (adjusted gross revenue) issue, with grave revenue implications to the tune of over Rs 92,000 crore for the ailing telecom sector.

AGR is the basis on which DoT calculates levies payable by operators. Telecom operators are liable to pay around 3-5% and 8% of the AGR as spectrum usage charges and licence fees, respectively, to DoT.

Telcos argued that AGR should comprise revenue from telecom services, but DoT insisting that AGR should include all revenue earned by an operator, including that from non-core telecom operations.

The apex court upheld the definition of AGR provided by DoT, putting an end to a 14-year old legal battle between telecom operators and the government.

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