Voda Idea tells SC it can pay Rs 2,500 cr now, SC grants no relief
The apex court did not grant Vodafone Idea any relief, dealing a big blow to the telco which has to pay Rs 53,000 crore to the government as part of its AGR dues and informed on Saturday that it is assessing how much of AGR dues it “can” pay the g…
Vodafone Idea told the Supreme Court on Monday that it can pay only Rs 2500 crore as of AGR dues now to the government and will follow it up with another Rs 1000 crore by February 21, as per lawyers.
The telco said that the Rs3,500 crore is 50% of its estimated principle AGR dues of Rs7,000 crore, and appealed to the SC that the telecom department should not take any coercive action and invoke bank guarantees as it would hamper their operations.
The apex court did not grant the telco any relief, dealing a big blow to VIL which has to pay Rs 53,000 crore to the government as part of its AGR dues and informed on Saturday that it is assessing how much of AGR dues it “can” pay the government and plans to pay it in the next few days.
Shares of Vodafone Idea were up by 9.59% to trade at Rs 3.77 on the BSE on Monday
The telco has been trying to get a relief from the SC regarding the same, including a longer payment tenure and waiver of interest and penalties. Its review petition got dismissed, prompting the telco, and other like Bharti Airtel, to file a modification petition to be allowed a longer tenure to make the payments.
At a hearing Friday, the telco got a jolt when the apex court threatened to to hold telcoa in contempt for not paying their AGR dues by the January 23 deadline.
The telco could be looking at some sources of coughing up atleast part of the dues, say experts.
Recently, the telco’s board approved modification in the use of the Rs 25,000 crore right issue proceeds to pay Rs 2,826.1 crore towards the AGR dues. In addition, the company can call upon Vodafone UK to cough up Rs 8,000 crore towards payment of AGR dues.The telco’s books show a cash and cash equivalent of Rs 23,114 crore as of December 2019
For the telco this step is necessary as the DoT is tightening the screws after it too was pulled up by the top court for not collecting the statutory dues.
The department sent out letters over Friday and Saturday to all telcos, asking them to make AGR payments “immediately” failing which “necessary action will be taken in terms of provisions of the License Agreements”.
