Vodafone Idea and Airtel post Rs 74,000 crore loss in Q2 on AGR provisioning

NEW DELHI: Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel 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.