SC clarifies Centre can reassess all AGR dues of Vodafone

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.

The clarification from a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai came in an oral mentioning made by Vodafone-Idea (VI), represented by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Mahesh Agarwal, post lunch.

The company pointed out that though a composite plea was made to reassess “all” the AGR, the sixth paragraph of the court’s October 27 order inadvertently said the telecom major was asking only for a reconciliation of the “additional” AGR demand made by the Department of Telecom (DoT) for the period up to the financial 2016-17.

“It was only a simple correction. We had sought a composite prayer to reassess and reconcile all the AGR dues,” Mr. Agarwal confirmed to The Hindu in a telephonic call on Monday.

On October 27, the apex court left it to the Centre to reconsider its demand for AGR dues from the company and take an appropriate decision in accordance with the law.

Appearing for the Centre on that day, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had flagged a “huge change in circumstances” in the time between previous AGR litigation in the top court involving VI and the present one as a reason for the government’s softened stand. Mr. Mehta had submitted that the government has infused a “substantial equity” to the tune of 49% in the company.

“Thus the government’s interest, which is the public’s own interest, is interlinked with the company now,” the top law officer had submitted.

He had further briefed the court that the company had 20 crore consumers, and any decision on the company would affect the customers too.

The court had said the issue was well within the “policy domain” as the government had considerable equity involved and the issue concerned 20 crore customers of the company.

VI had approached the apex court seeking relief against the additional AGR demand as well as for a comprehensive reassessment of all the AGR dues of the company.

The fresh litigation had come only months after the apex court had rejected earlier petitions by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea (VI) and Tata Teleservices seeking relief in the payment of their interest on the dues, penalty and interest on the penalty towards their respective AGR liabilities on the ground that they were under severe financial constraints. The apex court had, in its order in May, concluded their pleas to be “misconceived”.

Exactly a year ago, on September 19, the apex court had dismissed a curative petition filed by telcos, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, against the court’s October 2019 judgment upholding the DoT’s move to recover AGR of about ₹92,000 crore from them.