Giving a huge relief😊 to the country’s major telecom companies, the Supreme Court has allowed them👍 to repay nearly Rs. 1.43 lakh crore in combined dues they owe the govt. over the next 10 years.
The verdict will particularly benefit Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea which earlier missed 👉a January deadline to repay these dues.
They will now have to pay 10% of this amount to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) by March 31, 2021🗓️.
Notably, both companies had sought🙏 15-20 years for the same.
Meanwhile, Jio has already cleared🤟 its share of these dues.
Backdrop of this case
The trouble😧 for telecom companies began in Oct. 2019 when the Supreme Court allowed the central govt. to recover dues from them.
The court accepted the govt’s argument that adjusted gross revenues (AGR) of telecom companies must include their income from sales of handsets📱, termination and roaming charges, rent and dividends.
Notably, at this point of time, Bharti and Voda-Idea were already under severe financial pressure because of the intense price war⚔️ started off by the new entrant, Jio.
Staggering Figures
As per Supreme Court’s Oct. 2019 ruling, the telecom industry’s total dues📃 amounted to Rs.1.69 lakh crore.
While Bharti Airtel’s outstanding dues💰 now stand at Rs. 54,754 crore, Vodafone India is supposed to pay Rs. 25,976 crore.
The company reported its eighth consecutive quarterly loss📉 in the April-June period.
As of 30th June,its gross debt, excluding its lease liabilities, was Rs. 1.19 lakh crore
Because of this grave situation, Vodafone had even expressed concerns😣 as to whether it will be able to continue with its operations in the future.