AGR dues: Bharti Airtel pays Rs 10,000 crore to DoT

Bharti Airtel today said that they have paid Rs 10,000 crore to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) towards statutory dues and they plan to pay the balance amount soon after their self-assessment exercise.

In a statement released on Monday, the company said that the payment have been made on behalf of Bharti Airtel, Bharti Hexacom and Telenor. Meanwhile, it added that they are in the process of completing their self-assessment, after which, the company will clear the remaining dues and also submit supporting details along with the balance payment, tentatively before the next hearing date of Supreme Court (SC).

Nevertheless, SC on February 14, 2020 (Friday) had ordered the telecom companies to deposit Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues worth Rs 1.47 lakh crore by March 17, 2020. It also threatened the telecom companies with contempt proceedings if they fail to clear the government dues on time. As a result, DoT started issuing circle or zone-wise demand notices to the firms.

In response to the DoT order, Airtel had offered to pay Rs 10,000 crore by February 20 and the remaining amount before March 17, 2020. As a matter of fact, Airtel owes around Rs 35,586 crore, which includes licence fee and spectrum usage charge to the government.

At 12.49pm on Monday, the stock of Bharti Airtel Ltd is trading at Rs 564.45, down by 0.12 per cent against its previous close of Rs 565.10 on BSE.