AGR dues: Reliance Jio meets Supreme Court deadline, Airtel seeks time

MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio Infocomm became the only phone company to meet the Supreme Court’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues deadline, paying Rs 195 crore on Thursday. Rival Bharti Airtel sought more time to pay since the top court will be hearing its modification plea next week. The telecom department directed circle offices not to take any “coercive action” against telcos that hadn’t paid the dues by the deadline.

Separately, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan expressed the hope that non-telecom, staterun firms will remain unaffected by the October 2019 court ruling on AGR. The cumulative AGR-related dues of non-telecom companies are pegged at well over Rs 3 lakh crore.