Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel are seeking a meeting with telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad this week, sources told CNBC-TV18, after they failed to pay in full AGR dues to the government by the February 14 deadline set by the Department of Telecommunications.

The deadline was given by the DoT on Friday after the Supreme Court expressed anguish over non-compliance of its October 2019 order, which had asked the telecom companies to pay AGR dues by January 23.

Bharti Airtel has offered to pay Rs 10,000 crore of payment by February 20 and the rest well before the deadline of March 18—the date of the next Supreme Court hearing.

Vodafone Idea said it currently assessing the amount that it will be able to pay to DoT towards the dues and has proposed to pay the assessed amount in the next few days.

CNBC-TV18 has also learned that the top management of Vodafone Idea is meeting lawyers, bankers and representatives from promoter Aditya Birla Group to finalise the future course of action.

Moreover, Kumar Mangalam Birla has already spoken to Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday and has sought time till the next Supreme Court hearing to make the payment, CNBC-TV18 learned.

The telecom department has not commented yet on the non-payment from the telecom companies.

However, separate sources told CNBC-TV18 that there is no room for the government’s intervention in the AGR matter after a clear order from the SC. The government cannot go against the Supreme Court but they are concerns about the situation, they added.

Vodafone Idea in the regulatory filing said the company's ability to continue as a going concern is essentially dependent on a positive outcome in the AGR case.

Vodafone Idea owes banks about Rs 30,000 crore by Vodafone Idea, reported Reuters, citing a Macquarie report from 2019. Banks that have the highest exposure to Vodafone Idea include State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank and Bank of India, among others, according to the Macquarie report.

Banks are burdened with nearly $140 billion of bad loans and face another huge hit if Vodafone Idea is forced into bankruptcy, the Reuters report noted.

First Published:Feb 15, 2020 5:23 PM IST