New Delhi: In a reduction for Vodafone Concept, the Supreme Courtroom on Monday allowed the Centre to rethink the difficulty of Adjusted Gross Income (AGR) dues value Rs 9,450 crore to ease the burden of the loss-making telecom firm. The court docket reasoned that this matter falls within the Union’s coverage area. 

The Supreme Courtroom famous that the choice was made retaining in thoughts the curiosity of 20 crore shoppers of the telecom firm.

In a landmark 2019 verdict, the Supreme Courtroom endorsed the Centre’s definition of AGR and allowed the Centre to gather dues value Rs 92,000 crore which got here as an enormous setback for telecom majors equivalent to Vodafone and Bharti Airtel.

Vodafone’s newest petition flagged a recent AGR demand of Rs 9,450 crore raised by the Division of Telecommunications. The petition contended {that a} substantial portion of the demand pertained to the pre-2017 interval, which had already been settled by the Supreme Courtroom.

Solicitor Basic of India Tushar Mehta informed the court docket that “there’s a enormous change in circumstances” of the case as a result of the federal government has infused fairness in Vodafone. 

“The federal government’s curiosity is public curiosity. There are 20 crore shoppers. If this firm is to undergo, it might result in points for shoppers,” he mentioned.

The Supreme Courtroom famous in its order that the Centre is keen to look at the difficulty. “The federal government can be keen to rethink and take an applicable determination if the court docket permits. Within the peculiar info, we see no obstacle in authorities reconsidering the difficulty. We make clear that it is a matter of coverage, there is no such thing as a motive as to why the Union ought to be prevented from doing so,” the apex court docket mentioned.

AGR refers to a fee-sharing mechanism below which telecom operators should share part of their income with the Centre as licensing charges and spectrum utilization fees. There was a longstanding dispute between telecom corporations and the Centre over the definition of AGR. Whereas the telecom giants burdened that AGR ought to be primarily based simply on core companies, the Centre argued it must also think about non-telecom companies supplied by the telecom giants.