New Delhi: Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Airtel Thursday posted a mammoth net loss of Rs 23,045 crore in its July-September quarter as against loss of Rs 2,866 crore in Q1 on heavy provisioning towards the DoT’s AGR amount which has to be paid in three months as per the Supreme Court order.
The Gurugram-based operator’s net loss exceeded its consolidated revenue from operations which grew 4.9 per cent year on year to Rs 21,131 crore in the September quarter.
Airtel’s results come three weeks after the apex court upheld the government’s broader definition of revenue, on which it calculates levies on telecom operators, dealing a Rs 92,000 crore blow to the telecom industry, which is already burdened with falling tariffs and mounting debt.
“On October 24, 2019, the Supreme Court of India delivered a judgement in relation to a long outstanding industry-wide case upholding the view considered by Department of Telecommunications in respect of the definition of Adjusted Gross Revenue. This Court judgement has significant financial implications on the Company. The Court has allowed a period of three months to the affected parties to pay amounts due to DoT,” the company said.
Airtel said the company is hopeful of relief but in the absence of the same, has provided for an additional amount aggregating Rs 28,450 crore as a charge for the quarter comprising principal of Rs 6,164 crore, interest of Rs 12,219 crore, penalty of Rs 3,760 crore, and interest on penalty of Rs 6,307 crore with respect to the license fee as estimated based on the court judgement and spectrum usage charges (SUC) as estimated based on the definition of AGR.
Thus the liabilities/provisions as at September 30, 2019, aggregate Rs 34,260 crore (comprising principal of Rs 8,747 crore, interest of Rs 15,446 crore, penalty of Rs 3,760 crore and interest on penalty of Rs 6,307 crore).
In a statement, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said: “Despite being a seasonally weak quarter, we witnessed positive revenue growth in Q2 on the back of various initiatives aimed at providing superior differential services through our Thanks platform. We continue to witness strong data traffic growth of 81 per cent YoY and added 8 mn 4G customers on our network during the quarter. We remain committed to strengthening our network and providing a superior experience to our customers.
“Before exceptional items, the net loss stood at Rs 1,123 crore. The company’s India revenues increased by 3 per cent on year-on-year basis to Rs 15,361 crore. On the AGR verdict of the Supreme Court, we continue to engage with the government and are evaluating various options available to us. We are hopeful that the government will take a considerate view in this matter given the fragile state of the industry,” he said.
Mobile data traffic on the network grew to 4,661 PBs in the quarter and growth of 81 per cent YoY. Consolidated EBITDA was at Rs 8,936 crore while consolidated EBITDA margin is at 42.3 per cent, up 10.8 per cent YoY. India revenues for Q2’20 at Rs 15,361 crore have increased by 5.7 per cent YoY (reported increase of 3.0 per cent) on an underlying basis.
Mobile revenues have witnessed a YoY growth of 7.1 per cent. Mobile data traffic has nearly doubled to 4,497 PBs in the quarter as compared to 2,478 PBs in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile 4G data customers increased by 56.9 per cent to 103.1 mn from 65.7 mn in the corresponding quarter last year.
(IANS)
