The Supreme Court on Monday clarified that the Union government can comprehensively assess and reconcile all Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues of Vodafone-Idea up to the financial year 2016-17 in accordance with the Deduction Verification Guidelines of February 3, 2020.
This clarification was provided by the Chief Justice of India, BR Gavai, in an oral commitment made by senior advocates such as Mukul Rohatgi and Mahesh Agarwal.
The company observed that, although a composite plea sought to reassess “all” the AGR, the sixth paragraph of the October 27 court order mistakenly indicated that the telecom major was only requesting reconciliation of the “additional” AGR demand by the DoT for the financial period 2016-17.
Mr Agarwal stated to Hindu on a telephonic call on Monday, “It was only a simple correction. We had sought a composite prayer to reassess and reconcile all the AGR dues.”
On October 27, the Supreme Court deferred to the Centre to reassess the company’s claim.“Thus the government’s interest, which aligns with the public’s own interest, is now connected with the company,” the top law officer explained.
He further informed the court that the company has 20 crore customers, and any decision involving the company would impact these consumers. The court stated that the matter falls within the “policy domain” since the government holds significant equity and the issue affects 20 crore of the company’s customers.
Vodafone sought relief from the Supreme Court regarding the additional AGR demand and requested a comprehensive reassessment of all the company’s AGR dues. This new legal challenge emerged just months after the Supreme Court rejected earlier petitions by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea (VI), and Tata Teleservices.
These petitions sought relief from paying interest, penalties, and penalties on penalties related to their AGR liabilities, citing severe financial difficulties. In its May order, the Supreme Court deemed these pleas “misconceived.”
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Exactly a year earlier, on September 19, the Court dismissed a curative petition filed by multiple telcos, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, against its October 2019 judgment, which upheld the Department of Telecom’s move to recover approximately ₹92,000 crore in AGR from them.
