Vodafone Idea on Thursday paid Rs 1,000 crore to Department of Telecom towards its Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues, official sources said.
Earlier this week, the telecom company had paid Rs 2,500 crore and had said it would pay Rs 1000 crore more on the weekend.
But Friday is a holiday, so the company has made the payment on Thursday, however, Vodafone Idea did not comment on it.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) seeks Rs 53,000 crore AGR payments from Vodafone Idea making it the telco to be hit maximum by the AGR dues demand.
On Wednesday, VIL chairman K.M. Birla and his Airtel counterpart Sunil Mittal individually met Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and learnt to have sought relief from the government.
While the Government has so far not taken any decision on a bail out, Birla and Mittal have also met Telecom secretary Anshu Prakash to press for supporting the industry for sustainability.
Vodafone Idea has gone public saying unless government gives relief, it may not remain as a going concern which means it may either shut shop or go for bankruptcy.
Apart from Vodafone Idea, Tata teleservices made a payment of Rs 2,200 crore, while Airtel paid Rs 10,000 crore to the DoT on Monday.
In total, Airtel has AGR of Rs 35,500 crore, Vodafone Idea Rs 53,000 crore and Tata Teleservices (which has been merged with Airtel) owes Rs 14,000 crore. However, its dues are being paid by Tatas.
However, reports now suggest that DoT is recalculating AGR dues to include dues of FY18 and FY19 as well. Earlier, the total AGR dues were calculated at Rs 1.64 lakh crore when the Supreme Court upheld the government’s definition of AGR in October 2019.
Reports suggest that once DoT reworks dues, the total amount owed by telcos could go up by nearly 40%.