Business | Sep 20, 2024 | 7 min read SC junks pleas of telecom firms, share prices tumble

#New Delhi
Shares of Vodafone Idea and Indus Towers tumbled on Thursday as in a jolt to telecom firms, the Supreme Court dismissed a batch of pleas filed by these companies, seeking correction of alleged errors in the adjusted gross revenue.

The stock of Vodafone Idea slumped 19.60% to settle at Rs 10.38 on the BSE. During the day, it dropped 22.15% to hit a 52-week low of Rs 10.05.

Shares of Indus Towers tanked 8.86% to Rs 389.65. Intra-day, the stock plummeted 14.32% to Rs 366.30. Bharti Airtel, however, ended 0.75% higher at Rs 1,665.05 after falling 0.36% to Rs 1,646.65 in intra-day.

Case details
On October 9 last year, the top court had taken note of submissions of some telecommunication companies seeking listing of their pleas on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) due issue.

The telcos had referred to alleged errors in the arithmetic calculation for arriving at the AGR-related dues by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

In July 2021, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking correction of errors in the demand of AGR dues. The telecom companies had moved the top court claiming there were several errors in arriving at the AGR dues which totalled over Rs 1 lakh crore.

Vodafone-Idea’s total liability was Rs 58,254 crore and Bharti Airtel’s Rs 43,980 crore. Earlier, the top court had given the telecom companies 10 years to clear their outstanding dues to the government.
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A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai also rejected the plea of telcos seeking to list the curative petitions for open court hearing.PTI