The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on September 26 telecom major Vodafone Idea Ltd’s plea seeking quashing of additional adjusted gross revenue (AGR) demands raised by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the period up to 2016–17.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justices K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria scheduled the matter for consideration next Friday after hearing submissions from senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Vodafone Idea, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre.
Taking note of Mehta’s submissions that “circumstances have now changed and the parties want to find a solution,” the CJI remarked, “We will keep it on Friday.”
Vodafone Idea filed a fresh petition on September 8, urging the apex court to direct the DoT to “comprehensively re-assess and reconcile all AGR dues for the period up to FY 2016–17” in accordance with the Deduction Verification Guidelines dated February 3, 2020.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had dismissed review petitions filed by major telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, seeking rectification of alleged errors and duplication in AGR calculations.
The AGR liability stems from the Supreme Court’s October 2019 judgment, which upheld DoT’s definition of AGR and declared the demands raised against telecom operators as final.
In September 2020, the apex court allowed a 10-year payment schedule for clearing AGR dues, directing operators to pay 10% of the total dues by March 31, 2021, with the balance to be paid annually in instalments from April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2031. The court made it clear that no further disputes or reassessment would be permitted.
On July 23, 2021, the court dismissed applications by telecom companies seeking correction of alleged arithmetic errors in the dues computation.
Vodafone Idea and other operators have long argued that the dues include duplicated entries and computational mistakes, which significantly inflated the payable amounts.
