Supreme Court agrees to listen to Vodafone Idea's plea on AGR computation

The Supreme Court on Monday took note of a telecom firm's submission that its plea seeking correction of alleged errors in Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) related dues be listed for consideration.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra was urged by senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Vodafone Idea, that the petition needed consideration.

The curative petition against the dismissal of earlier pleas seeking correction of alleged errors in AGR-related dues is yet to be listed before a bench, the telecom firm said.

"I will see," the CJI said and asked whether an email has been sent in this regard.

On October 9 last year, the top court had taken note of submissions of some telecommunication companies seeking listing of their pleas on AGR due issue. The telcos had referred to alleged errors in the arithmetic calculation for arriving at the AGR-related dues by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

In July 2021, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking correction of errors in the demand of AGR dues. The telecom companies had moved the top court claiming there were several errors in arriving at the AGR dues which totalled over Rs 1 lakh cr.

Vodafone-Idea's total liability was Rs 58,254 cr and Bharti Airtel's Rs 43,980 cr. Earlier, the top court had given the telecom companies 10 years to clear their outstanding dues to the government.

The top court had held that the demand raised by DoT in respect of AGR dues would be final. It also said that telecom companies shall not raise any dispute and there shall not be any re-assessment.

It had said telecom operators shall pay 10 per cent of the total dues as demanded by DoT by March 31, 2021, and the rest in yearly instalments commencing from April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2031.