Supreme Court to hear AGR case on June 11

A Supreme Court bench led by Justice Arun Mishra will hear the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) case on June 11.

The SC had earlier reprimanded Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for allowing telecoms to arrive at dues payable through self-assessment.

While hearing the DoT plea on the AGR case, a bench of the Supreme Court of India on March 18 held that no further objections to its orders would be allowed against payable dues.

In its order, the three-judge bench comprising Justices Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and MR Shah held that no self-assessment can be done and no further objection would be entertained.

“All dues as per our judgement will have to be paid, including interest and penalty. The Solicitor General had filed a plea seeking reasonable time, we will consider this plea on the next date,” the order stated.

Vodafone-Idea and Bharti Airtel, two of India's top three carriers, owed the bulk of the dues.

Bharti Airtel said it has paid Rs 13,000 crore as AGR dues. Though Bharti said that amount covers all outstanding dues, it is less than half of the company's liability as estimated by the DoT.

Vodafone Idea 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.