Vodafone Idea shares tumble 10% as SC rejects plea to waive off AGR dues; other telecom shares decline too

Shares of Vodafone Idea (Vi) tanked 8% after the Supreme Court on Monday, May 19, dismissed the plea to waive off its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.  

The top court has also rejected the hearing request of Bharti Airtel on the same matter. Following that, the telecom firm’s stock was also trading 0.17% lower.

Indus Tower shares also slumped over 3% on the National Stock Exchange.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) had sought a waiver of more than ₹45,000 crore in AGR dues to ensure its survival.

The embattled telco shot off a letter to the Telecom Department on April 17, 2025, making a strong case for a lifeline, saying, "No support will lead to a point of no return."

"Without GoI's (Government of India) timely support on AGR, VIL will not be able to operate beyond FY26 as the bank funding discussions will not move forward," VIL CEO Akshaya Moondra wrote in a letter to the DoT secretary.

According to Voda Idea, without government support and in case VIL is not able to pay the AGR dues, the company will have to go into a process of NCLT, which would be a long-drawn process.

In such a scenario, the network as well as spectrum assets will lose value with the service being disrupted even for a short period, the telco said.

VIL said about 200 million users would be affected and will have to port out in such a case. Timely support will primarily benefit the general public and Indian economy at large, it said.

"Resultantly, operational performance improvement will be stalled. More importantly, the funds raised by the company will be utilised soon and the entire capex cycle will come to a halt. In such a case, the entire fund raising done over last 12 months and investment done so far by the company, as also the equity stake of government including the recent conversion, will lose value," VIL had said on May 16.

Voda Idea is understood to have said that the government is the largest stakeholder in VIL (49%), and in the absence of urgent intervention and support, it will itself have the most to lose in case VIL is marginalised or cannot continue operations as a consequence of the impact of the AGR judgement.