Telcos make part payments, SC refuses to block coercive action

NEWDELHI: Vodafone Idea Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd, the worst affected by the top court’s verdict on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) case, made partial payments of their dues to the government on Monday after the court pulled up the operators for failing to meet the payment deadline set by it.

Vodafone Idea’s board on Monday decided to immediately pay ₹2,500 crore to the department of telecommunications (DoT) and pay an additional ₹1,000 crore before the end of the week. “The board will take further stock of the situation to see how additional payments can be made,”

Vodafone Idea said in an exchange filing.

Vodafone Idea’s dues total about ₹50,000 crore, according to government estimates.

On the same day, Bharti Airtel paid ₹10,000 crore out of its total dues of ₹35,586 crore to DoT.

Telecom operators have scrambled to pay their dues to the government after the Supreme Court on Friday pulled up companies as well as officials of DoT for the delay in payments, in contravention of its October 24 order. The original payment deadline was January 23.

Soon after the court’s observations, DoT raised demand for the dues and said “necessary action will be taken in terms of the provisions of the licence agreement without any further notice” if dues are not paid immediately. Although DoT can encash bank guarantees of telecom operators in case of a default, it hasn’t resorted to this measure yet. DoT did not respond to an email query till press time.

An oral application made before the Supreme Court on Monday for directions to be issued to DoT to not take any coercive steps for recovery of dues was not entertained, Vodafone Idea said.

Vodafone Idea’s lawyer Mukul Rohatgi mentioned a plea seeking more time to pay the dues before a bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice MR Shah.

VODAFONE IDEA’S BOARD ON MONDAY DECIDED TO PAY ₹2,500 CRORE TO THE DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS