Airtel, Vodafone Idea, MTNL stocks fall as DoT pressure to pay up AGR dues mounts

Shares of telecom companies were trading lower on Thursday after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) reportedly issued a notice to telecom operators to pay their revenue share dues within three months.

Vodafone Idea shares dropped 21% intraday to hit an all-time low of Rs 2.90 on Wednesday's trade. This was followed by 4.88% intraday decline registered in Bharti Airtel shares, that fell to the intraday low of Rs 350.5 on the BSE.

Meanwhile, MTNL shares declined 4.9% to the day's low of Rs 11.02 on the BSE today. Additionally, MTNL, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel are scheduled to announce their July-September quarter earnings for the fiscal year today.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has started the initial process of claiming its Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues from telcos, directing them to pay up in accordance with the Supreme Court's October 24 order, under which they have been given three months to fulfil their obligations.

As per an internal estimate prepared by the DoT, total dues on the telecom service providers arising out of SC order are around Rs 1.33 lakh crore.

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