The DoT said the amount, assessed by a designated committee, will be paid in a staggered manner, with a minimum of Rs 100 crore annually over four years starting FY32, and the remaining dues to be cleared in six equal annual instalments from FY36 to FY41.
The dues stem from a long legal dispute over government’s method of calculating AGR, which telecom operators had contested as this metric determines licence fees and other dues.
Vi’s shares closed 0.68% lower at ₹10.22 apiece on the BSE on Thursday.
In December, the government approved a partial moratorium on Vi’s dues, freezing them at Rs 87,695 crore and deferring repayments to the 2030s, providing near-term cash flow relief for the debt-saddled firm.
The DoT’s decision provides another respite to the telecom operator, which was facing a ₹16,400 crore payment due in March 2026. The company continues to grapple with a total debt burden of nearly ₹2 lakh crore comprising statutory dues. However, the latest relief significantly bolsters its ability to raise fresh funding and invest in network improvement to compete with larger rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
The government has made several interventions to keep India’s third-largest telecom operator afloat. Under the 2021 telecom relief package, the government converted a portion of Vi’s dues into equity, eventually raising its stake to 48.99%, making it the company’s largest shareholder. In February 2023, nearly ₹16,000 crore of interest on deferred spectrum and AGR dues was converted into equity, giving the government about 33% stake at the time. This was followed by the conversion of an additional ₹36,950 crore of spectrum auction dues into equity in April 2025.
