Bharti Airtel Share Price In Focus This Week On Challenging Nearly Rs 5 Crore CGST Penalty

Telecom giant, Bharti Airtel has received a series of penalties either from the Department of Telecom for violation of subscribers norms or from central goods and services tax (CGST). In the latest development, Airtel announced that it does not agree to a penalty order of more than Rs 4.62 crore related to CGST, and has decided to take appropriate actions. Accordingly, Airtel shares will be in focus this week.

In its regulatory filing on Saturday, Airtel said, "We submit the details of the Order received by the Company under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The Company does not agree with the Order and will take appropriate action(s) for rectification/ reversal of the same."

This latest order included a penalty of more than Rs 3.55 crore from the Office of the Principal Commissioner, Central Goods and Services Tax Commissionerate, Jammu. The order alleged that there was irregular input tax credit transitioning from Bharti Airtel during the financial year 2017-18.

Apart from this, Bharti Airtel has also challenged another CGST penalty over Rs 1.07 crore which was levied by the Office of the Additional Commissioner of Central Goods and Services Tax & Central Excise Kolkata North, West Bengal. The reason behind the penalty was the same as mentioned above.

On the impact of this overall Rs 4.62 crore penalty, Airtel said, "The maximum financial impact is to the extent of the penalty levied."

Furthermore, last week, Airtel received a penalty of Rs 2.45 lakh from the Department of Telecommunications,
Tamil Nadu LSA ("DoT") on allegations of violating subscriber verification norms.

On DoT's penalty, Airtel said, "Alleged violation of terms and conditions with respect to subscriber verification norms under the License Agreement, pursuant to Sample CAF Audit conducted by DoT for August 2023."

Last week, on Friday, Airtel's share price ended at Rs 972.75 apiece, down by 0.5% on BSE with a market cap of Rs 5,46,720.84 crore. Nevertheless, the stock's weekly performance was an upside of nearly 3%. Year-to-date, Airtel shares surged by over 19% on the exchange.

In another development, Airtel announced that it has over 4.1 million unique 5G customers in the rest of Maharashtra beyond Mumbai. The company also announced that the Airtel 5G Plus service would be available across all the districts in the state within just 12 months of the launch.

Airtel's 5G service is now available across all districts and union territories in the country.

Over the past year, Airtel has been at the cutting edge of 5G innovation, successfully demonstrating the transformative power of 5G through a range of compelling use cases that have revolutionized how customers live their lives and conduct business.