Bharti Airtel unlikely to take legal route for AGR relief, for now

Writes to DoT seeking reassessment of dues

India’s second-largest telecom service provider, Bharti Airtel, is unlikely to approach the courts in the near term to seek relief on dues related to adjusted gross revenue (AGR), said people in the know.

 

Instead, the company has written to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) seeking a reassessment and recalculation of its AGR dues. The move was confirmed by Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal, who is currently in Davos, Switzerland, attending the World Economic Forum (WEF).

 

“We’ve written to the government that AGR was our issue as well, and we hope we get their attention,” Mittal told CNBC TV18 in an interaction at the WEF. He added that the company was yet to hear back from the government on its request.

 

Earlier this month, the government granted Aditya Birla Group-promoted Vodafone Idea (Vi) a 10-year breather on AGR payments, allowing it to pay a maximum of ₹124 crore annually for six years starting March this year, followed by ₹100 crore annually for four years beginning March 2032.

 

During this period, Vi’s AGR liabilities will be reassessed and finalised by a government-appointed committee. Payments on the reassessed dues will begin from March 2036 on an annual basis and continue until March 2041. The government has frozen Vi’s AGR dues at ₹87,695 crore as of December 31, 2025.

 

Airtel’s AGR dues are estimated to exceed ₹40,000 crore. The company has previously sought conversion of these liabilities into equity and has already paid around ₹18,000 crore towards AGR dues. The dues continue to accrue as they have not been frozen.

 

“We’ve not heard back from the government, but we heard the minister yesterday. He mentioned that everybody should take the route that Vi followed, which is via the courts. But we’ll still engage with the government,” Mittal said. He was referring to comments made on Wednesday by Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, where he said relief to Vi was granted strictly on the basis of a Supreme Court judgment and did not automatically extend to other players.

 

“…if there are others that have that desire then they will have to also go through the same route,” the minister had said.

 

At the WEF, Mittal said: “We just want to present our case to the government, especially around reassessment and recalculation. That’s not a legal point, but a mathematical correction of errors. So, we’ll engage with the government first,” he said.

 

Queries sent to Airtel seeking clarity on whether the company’s change of plans to approach the courts and whether it has sought similar payment terms as Vi did not elicit a response until press time.

 

While Mittal clarified that Airtel was not seeking any special treatment or concessions, he did not specify whether Airtel has asked for similar payment terms, including a moratorium after reassessment, as have been extended to Vi.

 

“For anybody, the formula will be the same. If there’s money paid that hasn’t been counted, or if there’s double billing, and that is established, your base principal goes down. That has a cascading effect on penalty, interest and interest on penalty, and the amount can come down significantly,” Mittal said. “I don’t think any government would want to take more money than what is due. In our case, we’re saying take what is due. We’re not asking for any concessions, but don’t take more than what is due.”

 

Mittal said Vi’s revival would be good for competition in the Indian telecom market as its large subscriber base could accommodate three private operators and one government-owned player.

 

He also noted the need for tariff repair to ensure viable business cases for telecom carriers that invest “billions of dollars in networks, apart from spectrum”.

 

The Bharti Enterprises chairman reiterated the need for Airtel’s average revenue per user to rise to around ₹300.

 

On Airtel’s Africa business, Mittal said revenues could reach $10 billion, but added that they could have been as high as $17-18 billion if not for the impact of sharply depreciating currencies across the continent. He noted that Airtel’s capital expenditure would continue at around ₹30,000 crore annually, directed towards fibre, fixed wireless access, and data centres.

 

While playing down the ongoing row between telecom operators and airport authorities,particularly over the lack of mobile connectivity provided by private telecom firms at the Navi Mumbai airport, Mittal expressed concern over contracts being awarded to third parties for tunnels and metro projects, for which telecom companies are being charged what he described as “obnoxious” right-of-way charges.

 

He also reiterated that the Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb satellite services are ready but will not compete with Starlink, as they are largely focused on enterprise and the defence sector.