Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: In a massive relief for beleaguered Vodafone Idea, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has reassessed the company’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues at Rs 64,046 crore at the end of Dec, as against Rs 87,695 crore estimated earlier.In a stock exchange filing, Vodafone Idea said on Thursday that the committee set up by DoT has allowed it to pay at least Rs 100 crore annually over four years — from 2031-32 to 2034-35 — with the remaining dues to be cleared in six equal annual installments between 2035-36 and 2040-41.
In an analyst presentation in December, Vodafone Idea said that it would pay Rs 124 crore each for six years, starting the last financial year, and then pay Rs 100 crore annually between 2031-32 and 2034-35, with the remaining amount to be paid over six years.The dues are on account of a long legal dispute over the government’s method of calculating AGR, which telecom operators contested. Vodafone Idea petitioned the Supreme Court, which allowed the Centre to consider the company’s grievances. In Dec, govt approved a partial moratorium on Vodafone Idea’s dues, freezing them at Rs 87,695 crore and deferring repayments to the 2030s, providing relief in cash flow for the debt-saddled entity, which has now slipped to the third place in the country’s highly competitive telecom market.The company reported a loss of Rs 5,284 crore during the Dec quarter, which came on the back of annual loss of Rs 27,400 crore during the last financial year (ended March 2025). In 2021, as part of a relief package, the government converted some of the dues into equity, with the Centre’s holding now at 49%, while the promoters have a 25.6% stake between them.Armed with the AGR relief, even as the reassessment proceedings were underway, the promoters moved in with Rs 27,000 crore equity infusion and the company repaid Rs 36,500 crore of bank debt, enabling it to free up resources for investment and expansion.After seeing a decline in its subscriber base during the last few years, the company has shown improvement in subscriber addition in Feb and March. It added over one lakh mobile subscribers in March, according to Trai data. Although Vodafone Idea shares fell 0.7% on Thursday to close at Rs 10.2 on Bombay Stock Exchange, since April 7, it has climbed over 18%.
