Crisis-hit Vodafone Idea files review petition in Supreme Court on AGR dues

CHENNAI: Cash-strapped Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) has submitted a review petition at the Supreme Court over a recent verdict that dismissed a plea from the company, Bharti Airtel, and the Tata group, asking for the correction of “arithmetic errors” in the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) computation of their AGR dues and penalties.

Industry sources also said that Bharti Airtel is likely to follow suit, though review petitions have had a very low success rate in getting verdicts favouring the petitioner.The review petition comes after the SC ruled last month that there would be no change in the AGR dues that are to be paid, with VIL liable to pay over Rs 58,000 crore in total and Airtel over Rs 44,000 crore. These liabilities have increased the strain on an already weak sector, but not for Reliance Jio – a late entrant which was only liable to pay around Rs 191 crore.