The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday agreed to hear on September 26 a plea of telecom major Vodafone Idea Ltd seeking quashing of the additional adjusted gross revenue (AGR) demands for the period until 2016-17. A bench of Chief justice BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria fixed the plea for consideration on next Friday after taking note of submissions of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the telecom firm, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre.
The law officer said that now the circumstances have changed and the parties wanted to find a solution. “We will keep it on Friday,” the CJI said. The company has filed a fresh plea on September 8 seeking a direction to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to “comprehensively re-assess and reconcile all AGR dues for the period up to FY 2016-17 following the ‘Deduction Verification Guidelines’” dated February 3, 2020.
Earlier this year, in a setback to telecom majors, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, the top court had refused to review its 2021 order rejecting their pleas for rectification of alleged errors in calculation of AGR dues payable by them. The top court had dismissed their pleas seeking review of the 2021 order. On July 23, 2021, the top court dismissed their applications seeking rectification of the alleged errors in calculation of AGR dues.
The telecom companies had argued that arithmetical errors in the calculation be rectified and there were cases of duplication of entries. The top court in September 2020 fixed a time frame of 10 years for telecom service providers struggling to pay `93,520 crore of AGR related dues to clear their outstanding amount to the Government.
In its September 2020 order, the top court said that telecom operators should make the payment of 10 per cent of the total dues as demanded by the DoT by March 31, 2021 and the rest amount would be paid in yearly instalments commencing from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2031.
The top court, which held the demand raised by the DoT with respect to AGR dues as final, said there should neither be a dispute raised by the telecom companies nor any re-assessment. The top court in October 2019 delivered its verdict on the AGR issue. The DoT moved a plea in the top court asking for a staggered payment of the dues by telcos over 20 years.
