 "Vodafone Idea files plea in Supreme Court seeking correction of AGR dues")
Vodafone Idea on Monday filed a curative petition against the Supreme Court judgment dismissing petitions by telecom companies seeking correction of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues payable by them.
Senior Advocate Harish Salve mentioned the plea before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
"This court has said there are arithmetical errors and this is a curative plea," Salve said.
When the CJI asked Salve how long the arguments would take, he said it would only take a day.
The CJI then said that the papers of the matter will be circulated. A date for the hearing has not been fixed yet.
The Supreme Court in 2019 directed telcos such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to pay dues as per the calculations of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
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The Supreme Court in September 2020 gave telecom companies 10 years to clear their pending AGR dues to the Central government, with 10 per cent payment to be made every year. The deadline for the first instalment of payment was 31 March 2021.
The appeal by the telcos for recalculation of dues was rejected by the apex court in July 2021.
Vodafone Idea's AGR dues amount to Rs 58,254 crore, of which it has paid Rs 7,854 crore. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel has to pay Rs 43,980 crore.
After the verdict, Vodafone Idea had filed a review petition in August 2021 in the Supreme Court for the correction of dues payable by them. This case is pending.
The companies had argued that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had made arithmetical errors in the calculation of dues and wanted the court to allow rectification of errors.
The apex court had barred telcos from self-assessing their dues and went with the DoT's claimed amounts.
After the DoT rejected Vodafone Idea's plea to review licence fee demands of Rs 3,273 crore for the financial year 2016 and 2017 on Friday, the company said it was deciding on the next course of action in the Supreme Court.