The Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued fresh notices to telecom companies asking them to pay their past AGR dues in full, as per the Supreme Court’s orders. March 17th is when the Supreme Court will hear the matter.

Discussing the implications of this, Rajiv Sharma of SBICAP Securities said that Bharti Airtel paid Rs 18,000 crore versus their self-assessment of Rs 13,000 crore. While, Vodafone Idea has paid less than their own self-assessment.

According to him, expecting any relief for telcos on AGR dues is being too optimistic. “Since October, every week, we have been hoping for some kind of relief but we have not seen anything which is meaningful, particularly on the AGR side,” said Sharma. Therefore, not expecting anything favourable for telcos to come in over the next 10 days, he added.

Talking specifically about Vodafone, Sharma said, “The problem is they do not have money and they have too much debt on the balance sheet and that’s why Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group had said that if there is no relief there will be a shutdown.

“Vodafone CEO, Nick Read is in India to take up this matter with the telecom ministry and is going to ask for relief. So if no relief comes, the shutdown looks inevitable,” said Sharma.