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Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
Bharti Airtel, the third-largest telecom operator in India, has requested for equal treatment from the government. On the earnings call of the company for Q3 FY26, Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chariman of the company said that they have written a few letters to the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) for the same. The telco wants clarity on what’s happening on this front from the government. Now a new report has surfaced, and it is saying that Airtel doesn’t care about the moratorium of the dues. The telco has the money to pay the dues right now, if it wants to. However, if the dues of Vi (Vodafone Idea) are being reassessed, then Airtel wants a reassessment too.
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Airtel had also fought alongside Vi at the Supreme Court for a recomputation of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues. On the earnings call, Gopal Vittal said, “We have written a few letters to the DoT, asking for clarification and basically requesting parity on the treatment of the AGR dues. We are yet to hear from the DoT. Once we hear from the DoT, we will then decide what our next steps are. So I think that’s all that we have on information on the AGR. These letters have already been sent and we are awaiting their response.”
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Any adjustment or reassessment of the AGR dues for Airtel can potentially reduce the dues of the telco by a huge margin. Airtel has time and again said that it wants equal treatment as Vi. This is a fair ask from the telco. But recently, a senior government official was quoted saying that the decision to give a relief to Vi was based on a Supreme Court ruling. Thus, it will be interesting to see if Airtel also gets a relief from the government on this front.
