Indian telecom firms’ foreign partners hit by AGR fallout

New Delhi: The Supreme Court ruling on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) has not just hit the Indian telecom firms hard, but has eroded the profits of their foreign partners as well, with the latest casualty being Airtel’s joint venture (JV) partner Singtel.
Singtel has recently posted its first quarterly loss of $491 million in the second quarter on its S$1.93 billion pre-tax share of Bharti Airtel’s provision for past dues, against an earlier profit of $667 million.
SingTel has said in a regulatory filing that “Airtel was impacted by an adverse court ruling against the industry on the definition of ‘adjusted gross revenue’ (AGR) for the Indian telecom industry.”
Airtel, together with other carriers in India, continue to make representations to the Indian government for relief and to seek further clarification on the AGR matter.