AGR dues: Bharti Airtel pays additional Rs 8,004 crore, claims compliance with SC judgement
The company said it calculated the liabilities on self-assessment basis till December 31, 2019, and the payment includes interest up to February 29, 2020.
Published: 29th February 2020 12:07 PM | Last Updated: 01st March 2020 10:45 AM | A+A A-
Bharti Airtel office building (File Photo | Reuters)
NEW DELHI: Even as telecom major Vodafone Idea is struggling to clear its statutory dues, Bharti Airtel on Saturday announced that it has paid an additional amount of Rs 8,004 crore to the department of telecom (DoT).
The payment of Rs 8,004 crore towards Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues, according to Airtel, is in addition to Rs 10,000 crore the company paid on February 17, 2020, in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment.
Airtel has paid a total of Rs 18,004 crore so far, which is Rs 5,000 crore more than what it believes it owes to the government. The company has finished self-assessing its AGR dues and according to the exercise, it dues amount to Rs 13,004 crore, which it has already paid off. As per government calculations, however, Airtel owes over Rs 35,586 crore to the DoT.
“Accordingly, the company paid an additional amount of Rs 3,004 crore towards the full and final amounts due over and above the ad hoc amount of Rs 10,000 crore paid on February 17, 2020, on behalf of the Bharti Group of companies,” Airtel said in a regulatory filing on Saturday.
The payment included liabilities on Bharti Airtel, Bharti Hexacom and Telenor India.
“We have also deposited an additional amount of Rs 5,000 crore, as an ad hoc payment (subject to the subsequent refund/adjustment to cover differences, if any arising from the reconciliation exercise with the DoT,” Airtel added.
Meanwhile, the cash-starved Vodafone Idea has so far paid Rs 3,500 crore in AGR dues and is said to be exploring options to raise funds and clear dues. It has already hinted that its survival in the Indian telecom market is on shaky ground because of the Supreme Court verdict.
While by government estimates Vodafone Idea is staring at dues worth Rs 57,000 crore, the company’s own estimates show it owes around Rs 23,000 crore, including Rs 7,000 crore in principle.
Tata Teleservices, on the other hand, has paid Rs 2,197 crore after self-assessment and has submitted the details of its AGR calculations to the government.
Last October, the SC had upheld DoT’s demand that wireless carriers pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore in overdue levies and interest.
