Bharti Airtel Ltd is expected to pay around ₹10,000 crore in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues to the government by 31 March, according to two people familiar with the matter, even as the telecom operator presses for a recalculation of its liabilities on par with Vodafone Idea.
This marks the first tranche of payments after a four-year moratorium ended in September 2025, with instalment schedule beginning March 2026.
“The company will need to make this AGR dues payment, which includes licence fee and spectrum usage charges (SUC),” one of the people cited above said, seeking anonymity. “At ₹10,000 crore, this payment would be just one-fifth of the total AGR dues of the company,” the person said, adding that the company is taking up the re-calculation of the dues issue separately.
Bharti Airtel’s deferred payment liability towards AGR was at ₹38,604 crore, according to its FY25 annual report. With interest accrued, the same has risen over ₹40,000 crore.
A query emailed to Bharti Airtel earlier on Sunday did not elicit any response till the press time.
The payment comes as the company has written to the government seeking reassessment and recalculation of its AGR dues, after the Union cabinet in December froze Vodafone Idea’s AGR dues at ₹87,695 crore as of 31 December 2025 and approved a payment plan allowing the company to clear these dues between FY32 and FY41. The telecom department also began reassessing Vodafone Idea’s AGR dues for the period from FY07 to FY19.
The reassessment exercise followed Supreme Court rulings in October and November 2025 that allowed the government to reassess and recalculate the company’s AGR dues.
In January this year, Bharti Enterprises founder and chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal had said the company has written to the government seeking reassessment and recalculation of its AGR dues as well.
“From our own stand point, we are hoping and (we have) written to the government that AGR was our issue as well and we hope we get attention from the government,” Mittal had said in an interaction with CNBC-TV18.
On the impact of the reassessment exercise, Mittal said, for anybody the formula will be the same. The reassessment would involve checking the money paid by operators that has not been counted, and if there is double billing that has come through.
“If all that is established, your base principal goes down and then there is the cascading effect on penalty, interest on penalty and the amount can come down significantly,” he explained, adding that he does not think any government would want to take more money than its due. “We are saying take what is due. We are not asking for any concession. But don't take more than what is due.”
Mittal had also ruled out filing the appeal in the court as he said the company was engaged with the government first.
In an interview with Mint on 20 March, communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the Supreme Court order was passed with regard to Vodafone Idea only.
“This order (recent one) made a special case for Vodafone Idea based on the rationale that the Supreme Court deemed fit. The DoT (department of telecom) has taken action based on the Supreme Court order. There is no such directive to us vis-à-vis any other TSP (telecom service provider),” Scindia said.
Earlier the minister also said any other telecom operator seeking such relief will have to take an approach similar to Vodafone Idea, which is via the Supreme Court.
Dues and stakes
In September 2021, the Centre had granted a four-year moratorium on AGR and spectrum dues as part of a telecom relief package. This moratorium deferred payments for dues up to FY19, while interest continued to accrue during the pause. The Supreme Court in 2020 had upheld the government’s AGR definition, leaving operators liable for the dues, and allowed 10 years for staggered payments, with instalments running till 31 March 2031.
AGR is the revenue base used to calculate licence fees and spectrum usage charges payable to the government.
Bharti Airtel is India’s second largest telecom operator by market share, and had a net debt, excluding lease liabilities, of ₹1.12 trillion as of December end. According to brokerage house CLSA, the company has a healthy free cash flows of about ₹47,800 crore in the nine months ended December.
On Friday, shares of Bharti Airtel ended 0.8% higher at ₹1,850 on the National Stock Exchange.
