Govt mulling proposal to waive AGR dues for telecom companies: Report

The Union government is mulling a proposal to waive adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues for telecom companies, said a report by Economic Times.

As per the proposal, the government is considering “to waive 50% of interest and 100% of penalties and interest on penalties” that make up a bulk of the AGR dues that were levied on telcos such as Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel after the Supreme Court order of 2019, said the report.

If the proposal is approved, it could prove to be a booster for the telecom industry.

Telecom operators’ AGRs

According to a Trai report, Telecom operators’ gross revenue rose 10.5 per cent year-on-year to ₹91,426 crore in July- September 2024 quarter. During this period, mobile service providers had raised tariffs.

The adjusted gross revenue, on which the government computes its levies, increased 13.11 per cent to ₹75,310 crore from ₹66,583 crore a year ago, the quarterly performance indicator report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed.

Bharti Airtel’s AGR surged 24.15 per cent on YoY basis to ₹24,632.84 crore during September quarter while Reliance Jio reported 14.19 per cent rise in AGR to ₹27,652.68 crore.

Vodafone Idea’s AGR rose 4.39 per cent to ₹7,836.98 crore from ₹7,507.65 crore and State-owned BSNL added 1.54 per cent to ₹1,996.77 crore.

Another state-owned MTNL’s revenue fell by 9.41 per cent to ₹152.81 crore during the quarter from ₹168.69 crore a year ago.

In July 2024, Airtel, Jio and Vodafone Idea had increased their mobile services rates by 11-25 per cent.

The telecom operators recorded an increase in their average revenue per user (ARPU) following the increase in tariff but they also lost subscribers.

Monthly APRU for mobile services rose by 9.60 per cent to ₹172.57 in September quarter from ₹157.45 in June quarter, said the report.

ARPU for pre-paid connection, which dominates the mobile phone services, stood at ₹171 and for the post-paid segment it was ₹190.67 in the second quarter of the fiscal year.