KM Birla Says Vodafone Idea To Shutdown Without Govt Relief On AGR Dues; Shares Fall

On Friday, chairman of Vodafone Idea Limited Kumar Mangalam Birla said that the company is likely to opt for insolvency if the government does not provide relief on the AGR (adjusted gross revenue) dues issue that has crippled its finances. Shares of Vodafone Idea fell nearly 9 percent in trade to Rs 6.65 a piece on NSE.

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, according to a PTI report, Birla indicated that his group will not be investing any money in the company in the absence of relief from the government as "there is no sense that good money should follow bad money."

On 24 October, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of department of telecommunications (DoT) in which the apex court rejected the definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as proposed by the mobile network operators that excluded revenue from non-core telecom operations like rent, dividend and interest income.

On 14 November, Vodafone Idea reported its biggest-ever quarterly loss of Rs 50,921 crore on account of provisions towards dues on AGR. The one-year-old joint venture between Aditya Birla Group and Vodafone Plc owes Rs 40,000 crore to DoT in AGR dues.