Vodafone Idea shares drops ahead of SC hearing on curative petition in AGR case

Vodafone Idea stock fell more than 5% on Friday to hit an intraday low of ₹15.39 on the NSE. Notably, the stock had closed over 2% higher in the previous session. Year-to-date, the telecom stock is down 4.6% but has jumped more than 79% in the past year.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud will hear the curative petition filed by telecom players, including Vodafone Idea, in the AGR case at 1:30 pm on Friday.

In 2019, the apex court ruled that AGR—which is used to calculate the annual licence fee to be paid by telecom companies to the government—should be based on a company’s total revenue and not just revenue from telecom services. This allowed the centre to seek an additional ₹92,000 crore from Indian telecom companies.

However, on July 15 this year, the Supreme Court acknowledged Vodafone Idea’s submission that challenged the 2019 ruling on payments owed to the Centre.

According to reports, Vodafone Idea’s curative petition seeks correction of any errors in the AGR demand calculations, along with a reduction of the penalty to 50% of the total shortfall amount and an adjustment of the interest rate on the penalty to 2% above the State Bank of India’s (SBI’s) prime lending rate.

Market experts estimate that a favourable outcome could significantly lead to potential benefits of ₹4-5 per share for Vodafone Idea.

Vodafone Idea shares closed 5.09% lower at ₹15.47 apiece on the NSE.