Telecom companies want to pay their interest, fines and interest on the fines. Photo: Reuters
The Supreme Court rejected requests from Telecom professionals Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices on Monday (May 19, 2025) to mitigate payments for their adjusted gross income (AGR) liabilities.
The seats of Justices JB Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan called the petition a “misconceptualization.”
Also Read | Telecom AGR Membership Fees: Supreme Court rejects curative request for calculation “error”
Telecom companies want to pay their interest, fines and interest on the fines. They called for the Supreme Court’s sense of fairness, saying they were under severe financial pressure due to a series of court rulings against AGR over the years.
The two companies demanded the waiver of Rs 40 billion in debt related to AGR, invoking the basic equal rights set out in Article 14 of the Constitution to give all participants equal opportunities and levels of areas. The two companies believe that giving up is an hour to ensure the industry is stable.
Last September, the Supreme Court rejected a treatment petition filed by telecommunications service providers in violation of an October 2019 judgment that upheld a lawsuit from the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) to recover AGR dues to approximately Rs 9.2 crore.
The October 2019 verdict stated that the telecommunications department has long obtained the center’s liberalized payment method through its revenue sharing system with the government. Under this mechanism, operators must pay a certain license fee and spectrum usage fee to DOT. The department calculates the expenses as a percentage of AGR. The private telecommunications sector and the government’s dispute over AGR computing has spanned twenty years.
“The overall revenue trend from 2004 to 2015 is evident that the industry has benefited a lot… Despite the start of financial gains from packaging, telecom service providers are still beginning to ensure that they have not paid licensing fees to the public finance under the Agreement AGR,” the Chief Court observed public finance in its 153-page judgment in 2019.
The court rejected the telecommunications service provider (TSP) objection to the government’s AGR.
The judgment states that the total revenue will include installation fees, late fees, sales revenue of the mobile phone (or any other terminal device, etc.), income, dividends, dividends, value-added services, supplementary services, access or interconnection fees, interconnection fees, etc.
After dismissing the review request, TSP filed a curative petition alleging errors occurred while calculating AGR dues.
Although the July 2020 order says the application filed by the Telecom Grand Slam is “correct” to “correct” mathematical error, while the appearance of “first blushing” is a spiraling way to recalculate its AGR debt – the Supreme Court explicitly forbids the road with an earlier order banned
The July 2020 order clearly states that “according to the calculations of the Union of India, the AGR dues that cannot be proposed cannot be disputed.”
The Supreme Court reiterated: “No telecom operator has raised any disputes over the requests made by the Ministry of Telecom related to AGR dues, in accordance with the court’s judgment of October 24, 2019. It also believes that any reassessment cannot be conducted.”
In September 2020, the Supreme Court ordered that annual 10% installment payments for TSP will start from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2031.
publishing – May 19, 2025 02:29 pm ist
