Vodafone Concept recordsdata new petition in Supreme Courtroom, seeks curiosity and penalty waiver on AGR dues: Sources

Personal sector telecom service supplier Vodafone Concept has filed a recent petition within the Supreme Courtroom searching for a waiver of curiosity and penalty within the matter associated to its adjusted gross revenue-related dues owed to the central authorities’s Division of Telecommunications (DoT), sources informed Zee Enterprise. 

The event comes at a time when the debt-ridden telecom agency is awaiting a listening to in its earlier petition within the prime courtroom on October 6.  

For the brand new petition, the corporate has cited the Supreme Courtroom’s earlier order within the matter. 

Final week, the apex courtroom adjourned a listening to within the case to October 6, having earlier admitted the telecom operator’s petition difficult the telecom division’s demand for a further levy for the 2016-17 interval. The telecom division has demanded excellent dues amounting to Rs 9,450 crore from Vodafone Concept whereas the telecom agency has argued that the quantity exceeds the scope of earlier rulings that capped the liabilities as much as FY17 and disallowed reassessments. 

The dues embody Rs 2,774 crore associated to post-merger Vodafone Concept and Rs 5,675 crore associated to pre-merger Vodafone Group liabilities. Vodafone Concept has additionally claimed that the telecom division’s calculations embody duplications and clerical errors. It has mentioned that the liabilities have already been calculated and can’t be modified or elevated. 

In Could, the Supreme Courtroom had rejected a joint plea by telecom operators, together with Vodafone Concept, searching for aid within the cost of their curiosity on the dues, penalty and curiosity in direction of their respective AGR liabilities citing extreme monetary constraints. The highest courtroom had discovered their petitions to be “misconceived”.

Vodafone Concept — a three way partnership between homegrown Aditya Birla Group and UK-based Vodafone Group — has struggled to clear its excellent spectrum and revenue-sharing dues since a 2019 Supreme Courtroom order that widened the scope of revenues on which the dues are assessed. 

To assist Vodafone Concept, the central authorities has over time transformed a part of the dues into fairness and elevated its stake within the firm to 48.99 per cent. As of March 31, Vodafone Concept complete debt stood at roughly Rs 2.42 lakh crore, together with long- and short-term borrowings.

ALSO READ: TRAI points new draft to reshape broadcasting and cable distribution trade

Vodafone Concept shares 

On Monday, the Vodafone Concept inventory rose 2.7 per cent to shut at Rs 8.24 apiece on BSE, in a Mumbai market the place benchmark indices declined for the seventh session in a row amid issues in regards to the potential affect of harsh US tariffs on economies like India.