By Arpan Chaturvedi
(Reuters) -India’s top court on Monday said the government can consider Vodafone Idea’s relief request for all of its adjusted gross revenue telecom (AGR) dues, according to a lawyer in the case, sending shares of the debt-laden firm up around 10% in the session.
The Supreme Court said the relief could include penalty and interest, according to the lawyer, who declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Last week, the apex court said the government was free to reconsider the company’s AGR dues. However, uncertainty remained regarding whether the observation applied solely to the firm’s additional AGR dues or the entire amount owed.
The beleaguered firm had sought relief both on the additional AGR dues worth about 95 billion rupees ($1.08 billion) and its total AGR dues of nearly 800 billion rupees, CNBC-TV18 reported earlier.
Vodafone did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The company’s moratorium on spectrum and adjusted gross revenue payments ended in September.
Telecom operators, including Vodafone Idea, have long contested the government’s method of calculating AGR, which determines the licence fees and other dues.
Shares of telecom tower operator Indus Towers, which is owed money by Vodafone Idea, rose as much as 5.8%.
Vodafone shares had risen 4.5% earlier in the day after Economic Times reported that U.S. private equity firm Tillman Global Holdings (TGH) is in negotiations to invest $4 billion to$6 billion and take operational control of the firm.
($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru and Arpan Chaturvedi in Delhi; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Vijay Kishore)
