Vodafone Idea seeks SC's waiver on payment of penalty, interest on AGR dues
This story was originally published at 21:10 IST on 29 September 2025
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NEW DELHI – Vodafone Idea Ltd. has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking exemption from the payment of interest, penalty, and interest on penalty on the principal amounts of adjusted gross revenue dues. The telecom company had filed the application to amend its previous petition seeking quashing of the Department of Telecommunications' additional adjusted gross revenue demand of INR 94.50 billion till FY19.
The petitioner said that it had previously objected to the issue of imposition of penalty on the ground that non-payment of adjusted gross revenue dues was bona-fide. There was a conflict of judicial views on the point as to whether certain heads of income such as depreciation, foreign exchange fluctuations, rental income, were part of the income for the purposes of computation of adjusted gross revenue or not, said the petitioner.
The Department of Telecommunications in 2020 had filed an application furnishing a table of dues stating that Vodafone Idea was liable to pay an amount of INR 582.54 billion as adjusted gross revenue dues inclusive of interest, penalty and interest on penalty which had been calculated till FY17, said the petitioner. It has now transpired that the statement of outstanding submitted by the Department of Telecommunications before the apex court did not accurately contain the exact outstanding amount, said the petitioner.
Even the Department of Telecommunications was not clear of the adjusted gross revenue amounts due and thus, both the parties were not aware of the exact dues payable, said the petitioner. This is more than evident from the current demands raised by the department which are over and above the amount crystalised by the top court for the same period upto FY17, said the petitioner. Vodafone Idea said that it was well settled that where the amounts payable was in dispute or not crystalised or not ascertained, and the parties were under a mistake of fact of the exact quantum, penalty cannot be levied.
In May, the top court had rejected a similar petition by Vodafone Idea seeking a waiver of INR 454.57 billion adjusted gross revenue dues towards interest, penalty and penalty on interest. However, the bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan clarified that "if the government wants to help you (the petitioners), we are not coming in your way".
In 2019, the apex court had backed the government's view and levied adjusted gross revenue dues of INR 1.47 trillion on telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel Ltd., its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom Ltd., and Vodafone Idea Ltd. Thereafter, in 2020, the court had granted 10 years to telecom companies to clear their adjusted gross revenue dues to the Department of Telecommunications. It had asked telecom companies to pay 10% of the adjusted gross revenue dues upfront. The top court had then said that no revaluation of adjusted gross revenue dues would be allowed and any default would invite interest and penalty and be considered contempt of court.
On Monday, the shares of Vodafone Idea Ltd. ended 2.7% higher at INR 8.24 on the National Stock Exchange. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
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