Vodafone Idea pays another tranche of AGR dues to government; Rs 7,854 crore paid so far

Vodafone Idea saw its consolidated revenue rise 6 per cent in Q4 FY20 to Rs 11,754 crore.

Telecom company Vodafone Idea on Friday further paid Rs 1,000 crore to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) towards the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, according to the latest regulatory filing. The latest tranche took the total payment amount to Rs 7,854 crore up from Rs 6,854 crore paid by Vodafone Idea earlier in three tranches.

“In line with the above, the company has yesterday (July 17, 2020) paid a further sum of Rs 1,000 crore to the DoT (Department of Telecom) towards the AGR dues,” the company said in the filing. Supreme Court in the last hearing held on June 18, 2020 had “requested (telecom operators) to make payments of reasonable amount also to show their bonafides, before the next date of hearing.” Nonetheless, Vodafone Idea saw its consolidated revenue rise 6 per cent in Q4 FY20 to Rs 11,754 crore on a sequential basis while the consolidated Ebitda increased 28 per cent to Rs 4,380 crore even as its APRU increased 11 per cent to Rs 121 vis-à-vis Rs 109 in Q3. Despite a decent show, Vodafone Idea was looking at massive AGR dues worth Rs 58,000 crore.

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Meanwhile, the company lost 64 lakh subscribers in March as the government enforced the national lockdown to fight Covid pandemic. “We are certain that the lower addition has been hit by restrictions from mid-March 2020 and the nationwide lockdown during the latter half of Mach 2020,” a report by Motilal Oswal on telecom sector said on Thursday. However, Reliance’s Jio had added 47 lakh new subscribers.

In a supposed relief to Vodafone Idea, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Thursday had stayed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s order to the telecom company to put on hold its premium plan RedX, launched in November last year, for postpaid customers.