What can we expect from the Supreme Court judgment expected today on the telecom AGR issue?

The Supreme Court judgment that is expected on 22 July is more on the methodology of the calculation of the liability, which the two telecom companies, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel have objected to. Vodafone Idea has claimed that there were arithmetic errors in the calculation of the AGR dues payable to DOT. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel has claimed there were duplications in the DOT charge and it had also disallowed genuine deductions.

Currently, as per the claim put out by the DOT, Bharti Airtel owes Rs.43,000 crore and Vodafone owes Rs.50,000 crore. Both the telecom companies have consistently paid dues on a regular basis over last 198 months. In Oct-20, the Supreme Court had upheld that non-core business income must be added to arrive at the annual AGR amount on which fee is leviable. Telecom companies have been allowed to stagger payments over next 10 years.