SC to hear Vodafone Idea's plea against additional AGR dues raised by DoT on September 26

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria observed the need for closure in the long-standing AGR dispute and said, "There has to be some finality to the proceedings."

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, requested an adjournment for next week, saying the government and the company were trying to find a resolution.

The plea of Vodafone sought directions to quash the additional demand of AGR dues, saying that it belonged to the pre-2016- 17 period that had been settled by the Supreme Court's earlier ruling.

It further directed the telecom department to comprehensively reassess and reconcile all AGR dues based on the 'Deduction Verification Guidelines' issued on February 3, 2020.

"The action of DoT was completely unjust, unfair and arbitrary in seeking to raise additional demands despite the Supreme Court having crystallised the AGR dues and not carrying out a complete re-assessment since, while DoT is at liberty to raise additional demands, the petitioner is not being permitted to seek correction of assessments made by DoT which have been thrusted upon the petitioner," the petition stated.

The telecom company claimed that errors in computation have led to duplication of entries, with certain amounts added more than once.

By the October 2019 judgement, telecoms were asked by the apex court to pay AGR dues.

In September 2020, the Supreme Court granted telecom companies a period of 10 years to clear their pending AGR dues to the Central government, with 10 per cent payment to be made every year. The deadline given to the telecom companies for the first instalment was March 31, 2021.

In July 2021, the Supreme Court had dismissed the plea of telecom majors, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, seeking correction of errors in the calculation of AGR dues payable by them as per the top court's 2019 judgement. (ANI)