Vodafone Idea, Airtel Shares Gain After SC Agrees To Hear Plea Against AGR On 9 Jan

On Wednesday, Telecom companies Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea mentioned their review petitions against the Supreme Court's earlier verdict on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and sought an urgent hearing.

The apex court will hear the companies' plea against AGR dues on 9 January and has asked the companies to seek clarity on the listing of the AGR case.

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Shares of Vodafone Idea jumped as much as 7.5 percent while Bharti Airtel gained over 1 percent in trade on Wednesday.

The two telecom players in the country were hit the most by the 24 October SC order that requires them to pay over Rs 88,500 crore collectively as AGR dues before the deadline of 24 January 2020.

The long dispute between telecom operators and the Department of Telecom was settled in October where the verdict was in favour of DoT to widen the definition of AGR to include non-core items. License fees and spectrum usage charges are calculated on the basis of AGR.

Now some 15 telecom companies owe over Rs 1.47 lakh crore to the government, which could rise further. Airtel and Vodafone Idea, that have also been hard hit by competitive pricing from Reliance, will suffer to sustain without sufficient government or judicial relief.