Airtel may need to pay Videocon AGR dues: SC

NEW DELHI: In a turn of events that may increase Bharti Airtel’s already enormous AGR liability, the Supreme Court on Friday made an observation that may see the company end up paying around Rs 1,400 crore in AGR dues owed by bankrupt Videocon Telecommunications. Airtel’s total liability, part of which it has already paid, already comes up to nearly Rs 44,000 crore.

On Friday, the SC bench comprising Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and MR Shah noted that according to spectrum trading guidelines, AGR dues that arise from the spectrumassets would first have to be met, before these licenses could be traded. If the company that had initially held the spectrum could not pay up these liabilities, then the company currently holding the spectrum would need to do so, the court observed.