Bharti Airtel approaches Supreme Court claiming DoT's AGR mathematical error

Bharti Airtel approaches SC claiming DoT's AGR mathematical error

Bharti Airtel (Airtel) approached the Supreme Court (SC) claiming assessment error of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues payable by the company

Airtel owes the Indian government almost Rs. 26,000 Crores and Vodafone- Idea (Vi) has about Rs. 50,400 Crores in AGR dues. According to DoT, the total AGR demand is approx. Rs. 44,000 Crores for Airtel and Rs. 58,400 Crores for Vi.

Airtel has already paid over Rs. 18,004 Crores of its dues and Vi has paid Rs. 7,854 Crores. It was claimed by telecom companies that there are computational and accounting differences and duplication in demand items that DoT submitted, against what the operators and that the calculations are wrong.

The SC passed an order in October 2019; the said order widened the definition of AGR and also includes non-core revenue items. It was submitted by Airtel and Vi that their self-assessed dues of Rs. 13,004 Crores and Rs. 21,533 Crores, respectively, and the said amount was scrapped by the SC.

On 1 September 2020, the Court further ruled that the telecom operating companies must pay 10% of their AGR dues as asked by DoT by 31 March 2021 and the remaining amount shall be paid in equal instalments in every financial year (FY) up to 31 March 2031.

Airtel moved the SC and claimed that there is an arithmetical error made by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) while calculating the company's AGR dues. According to Airtel, its dues stand at Rs. 43,980 Crores, out of which Rs. 25,976 Crores is the outstanding amount.

Telecom companies are accepting outstanding dues and only pointing out "arithmetical errors" in DoT's calculations. However, no final call has been taken by the companies regarding the filing of curative pleas.