AGR case hearing: Telecom stocks tumble; Vodafone Idea, Bharti Infratel falls 9-13%, Airtel ends in the red

The top loser in the index was Vodafone Idea which tanked 13 percent followed by Bharti Infratel, HFCL, Tejas Networks, ITI and Bharti Airtel.

Shares of Reliance Communications and GTL Infra however jumped over 4 percent each while MTNL added a percent.

The case is being heard by a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and including Justices MR Shah and S Abdul Nazeer. The same bench, on March 18, held that “no further objections would be allowed against payable dues.”

On March 16, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the DoT had sought staggered payment over 20 years of AGR dues by telecom companies. The plea also asked that telcos not be charged a penalty and interests on penalty and principal beyond the date of the judgement.

For Bharti Airtel, the AGR dues as per DoT is Rs 35,500 crore whereas it is Rs 13,000 crore as per the company's self-assessment. So far, it has paid Rs 18,800 crore. As per DoT, it still has to pay Rs 17,500 crore.

For Vodafone Idea, DoT claims that the remaining payable is Rs 53,000 crore while the company claims it is Rs 21,500 crore. So far, the company has paid Rs 6,900 crore. As per DoT, it still has to pay Rs 46,100 crore.

The court had ordered telcos to clear total dues of Rs 1.47 lakh crore in line with the telecom department's estimate

Vodafone Idea, Tata Teleservices and Bharti Airtel owe the bulk of the dues.

Airtel has already paid Rs 13,000 crore, but this is less than half of the company’s estimated liabilities. Meanwhile, Vodafone has so far paid Rs 3,500 crore out of the "self-assessed" liability of Rs 21,533 crore it estimates it owes, but much lower than the government demand.