The Supreme Court today, on September 19, has dismissed the curative petition filed in the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) case. This petition was filed by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel and other telecom companies, in which it was said that serious mistakes have been made by the Telecom Department in the calculation of AGR dues.
The biggest impact of the rejection of the petition was seen in the shares of Vodafone Idea (VI). The share of VI fell by 19.07% and closed at Rs 10.44. In fact, VI currently has an outstanding amount of more than Rs 70,300 crore.
The Supreme Court did not find any strong case
The Supreme Court said – it has thoroughly reviewed the curative petitions and the documents attached to it, but it did not find any strong case presented by the telecom companies. Therefore, the court is dismissing all the petitions.
Currently the government holds 23% stake in Vodafone Idea
The government initially held a 33% stake in Vodafone Idea, which has now come down to 23%. The shares were allotted to the government in exchange for conversion of delayed interest dues of AGR and spectrum auction payments.
Airtel owes much less than Vodafone Idea
Balaji Subramaniam, Vice President of IIFL Securities, said that this decision of the Supreme Court has increased the financial difficulties for Vodafone Idea. In such a situation, Airtel may get a chance to regain its market share. He said that now the situation of Vodafone Idea will be closely monitored to see if the company will be able to complete its fund raising plan after this negative decision.
Raising funds has become very important for the company, because without it it will not be able to continue its capital expenditure plans. According to IIFL Securities, Bharti Airtel currently has AGR dues of Rs 36,000 crore, which is much less than Vodafone Idea.
Airtel shares today closed at Rs 1,672 with a rise of 1.03%.
What is Adjusted Gross Revenue?
Adjusted Gross Revenue is a mechanism of revenue sharing between the government and telecom operators. Under this mechanism, operators have to pay a fixed licensing fee and spectrum usage charges to the Telecom Department. DoT calculates the fee as a percentage of AGR. However, the definition of AGR has always been controversial.
VI suffers loss in first quarter but 18% less than last year
Vodafone-Idea (VI) suffered a consolidated loss of Rs 6,432 crore in the first quarter of FY 2025. The company had suffered a loss of Rs 7,840 crore in the same quarter a year ago. VI's loss reduced by 17.96% on an annual basis.
In the April-June quarter, Vodafone-Idea's consolidated operational revenue fell 1.3% year-on-year to Rs 10,508.30 crore. In the same quarter a year ago, the company's revenue was Rs 10,655.50 crore. The amount received from selling goods and services is called revenue.
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