Videocon dues may jack up Airtel’s AGR bill

Mumbai: Bharti Airtel’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) bill is set to increase, with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) likely to add a bulk of Videocon Telecommunications’ Rs 2,041 crore dues to it, say government officials. Airtel though may not have to pick up any portion of Aircel’s Rs 11,950 crore liabilities and Reliance Communications’ dues of Rs 21,921 crore are unlikely to be transferred to Reliance Jio Infocomm.

While Jio has on its favour a court order, which on a separate spectrum trading deal had said the telco cannot be held responsible for the arrears of RCom, the views on Airtel’s liabilities are based on the use case of the spectrum it acquired from Videocon and Aircel, a government official said.