Vodafone Idea extends slide or 2nd day, drops 3% as firm mulls options to pay back AGR dues

NEW DELHi: Shares of Vodafone Idea extended their slide to the second day in Friday's session amid reports that the telecom operator could offer spectrum, tangible assets and tax refunds as security to the Supreme Court in the AGR case.

Earlier on Thursday, the cash-strapped Vodafone Idea had expressed its inability to shore up money to pay the AGR dues to the government at one go, saying it would be forced to close.

The stock declined 3.41 per cent to Rs 9.07 on BSE, in addition to a 13.41 per cent slide in the previous session after the apex court asked the telecom operator to submit within the next five days the roadmap for payment of dues and the timeline along with the security the company will furnish to protect future payments to the government.


Mukul Rohatgi, the company’s counsel, said it wouldn’t be possible to furnish bank guarantees, given the financial constraints.

Vodafone Idea has paid Rs 6,854 crore of the AGR dues it owes to DoT, which the company assessed at Rs 21,533 crore. According to DoT’s most recent estimate filed with the Supreme Court, the company owes Rs 58,254 crore.

Earlier in March, the SC had slammed Centre, telecom operators for not complying with its order on dues and penalties. No further objections on the AGR dues would be allowed on dues, it had said.

In October 2019, an SC bench, comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Abdul Nazeer and MR Shah, upheld the DoT definition of AGR.