Centre Can Reconsider Vodafone Idea’s AGR Dues — What Supreme Court Order Says

The Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday allowed the Union authorities to rethink points associated to Vodafone Thought Ltd.’s adjusted gross income dues raised for the interval as much as fiscal 12 months 2016-2017, providing a possible breather to the debt-laden telecom operator.

In its order, the bench noticed that the Union of India is keen to rethink the matter and take an acceptable determination, topic to the permission of the Courtroom. The Courtroom mentioned that, given the “peculiar details and circumstances of the case,” there could be no obstacle to the Centre reviewing the problem and taking a contemporary determination in accordance with regulation.

The bench clarified that the matter falls inside the coverage area of the Union authorities and that the Courtroom wouldn’t intrude in such policy-related concerns. “As per the peculiar details and circumstances of the case, the Union of India, preserving in view the bigger public curiosity, needs to rethink the problem, there is no such thing as a motive to restrain or forestall it from doing so,” the order on Wednesday acknowledged.

Considerably, the Supreme Courtroom famous that Vodafone Thought’s plea was restricted to the extra AGR demand raised by the Division of Telecommunications for the interval as much as the monetary 12 months 2016–17. The order explicitly applies solely to Vodafone Thought, given the distinctive circumstances surrounding its case.

“In that view of the matter, we eliminate the current writ petition with the aforesaid observations,” the Courtroom mentioned, successfully closing the petition whereas paving the best way for the federal government to reassess the corporate’s dues.

The event affords Vodafone Thought a possible alternative to hunt reduction in its long-standing dispute over AGR-related liabilities, which have weighed closely on its monetary place for the reason that Supreme Courtroom’s earlier rulings on the matter.

In September, the troubled provider sought a waiver of penalty and curiosity on adjusted gross income demand of Rs 9,450 crore raised by the Division of Telecommunications, contending {that a} substantial portion of the demand pertains to the pre-FY17 interval already settled by the apex courtroom in 2020.

The corporate argued that the demand goes past the scope of the apex courtroom’s earlier ruling on AGR liabilities, as per studies. Of the full dues, Rs 2,774 crore pertains to the post-merger Vodafone Thought entity, whereas Rs 5,675 crore pertains to liabilities of the pre-merger Vodafone Group.

The federal government has grow to be the one largest shareholder in Vodafone Thought after buying shares price Rs 36,950 crore in lieu of excellent spectrum public sale dues in March. Earlier, the federal government had acquired round 33% stake in 2023 in lieu of statutory dues price over Rs 16,000 crore.