Voda Idea & Airtel post Rs 74,000 crore loss in Q2 on AGR provisioning

New Delhi: Vodafone IdeaNSE 5.08 % and Bharti AirtelNSE 6.70 % have raised doubts over their ability to continue as going concerns while posting unprecedented losses of Rs 50,921.9 crore and Rs 23,045 crore, respectively, for the July-September quarter, after provisioning for adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-based dues following a recent Supreme Court ruling.

Vodafone Idea — whose quarterly loss was the worst in India’s corporate history — has set aside Rs 25,680 crore, while Bharti Airtel — which posted the third-worst quarterly loss ever for India Inc — provided for Rs 28,450 crore, the two companies said in separate statements Thursday.

An executive at one of the telcos said these were “notional accounting losses” and not operating losses.