Vodafone Idea (Vi), the third-largest telecom operator, has filed a plea in the Supreme Court (SC). The SC will already hold a hearing on October 6, 2025, for the AGR dues matter. For the unaware, the government has raised an additional demand for AGR (adjusted gross revenue) dues, apart from the amount already that the telco has been asked to pay. This additional demand was not entertained by the telco and thus, Vi moved to the Supreme Court for getting a resolution.
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Now, according to an ET report, Vi has filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking waiver on the interest, penalty and interest on penalty on additional AGR dues demand raised by the DoT. Vi has been asked to pay an additional Rs 9,450 crore AGR amount accrued till the year FY19.
"There was a conflict of judicial views on the point as to whether certain heads of income such as depreciation, foreign exchange fluctuations, rental income, etc. were part of the income for the purposes of computation of AGR or not. In fact, the TDSAT judgment of April 23, 2015, was in favour of the petitioner (Vi) and, therefore, there was no question of payment of the demands, which were to be reworked by DoT," the application said, as per ET.
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The Supreme Court wants a finality to come into the matter. This thing has been dragged on by the two parties, Vi and the government for quite long now. From FY26, Vi is due to start making payments to the government for the deffered AGR dues. The telco's revenues are not at a level where it can comfortably pay the dues. All eyes will now be on October 6, 2025, where the decision from the Supreme Court on the matter is excited.
