India's top court rejects telecom firms' plea to recalculate dues owed, Mint reports (updated)

Indus Towers

14/02/2025 07:50

(Updates shares in paragraphs 2,3, adds background from
paragraph 4)
       Feb 14 (Reuters) - India's top court has rejected a
request by telecom companies to recalculate the dues they owe
the government, the Mint business daily reported on Friday.
    The news sent shares of debt-saddled Vodafone Idea  VODA.NS 
down 5.3%, while shares of telecom tower operator Indus Towers
 INUS.NS  dropped about 4%. Analysts previously said a similar
court decision would delay Indus Towers' recovery of dues from
Vodafone Idea.
    The companies, in a last resort petition against a similar
ruling by the top court in 2021, had argued that the telecom
department made errors in calculating the so-called adjusted
gross revenue (AGR) dues.
    A similar appeal was rejected by India's top court in
September last year.
    Telecom firms had long contested that only revenue accrued
from core services should be taken into account when computing
the dues, while the government argued that AGR should include
non-core revenue as well, such as money from rent or land sales.
    The Supreme Court, in 2019, ruled in favour of the
government's definition of AGR calculations.
    The latest ruling is a setback for Vodafone Idea, which owes
the government around 2.27 trillion rupees ($26.1 billion) in
license fees and spectrum charges, according to its latest
earnings statement.
    The Indian government is also one of the largest
shareholders in the company with a 23.15% stake.
        
  

    ($1 = 86.8580 Indian rupees)
  

 (Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru)
 ((Nandan.Mandayam@thomsonreuters.com; Mobile: +91 9591011727;))