Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea must pay $13bn after court order

MUMBAI (NewsRise) -- India's Supreme Court rejected a plea by mobile phone operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea seeking a review of its previous order that ruled they must pay overdue levies and interest of almost $13 billion, dealing a setback to the cash-strapped companies.

In October, the top court had upheld a demand by the country's telecommunications department which has been at odds with the operators over the way the industry calculated the adjusted gross revenue. While the government argued that the AGR should include the revenue operators earned from all sources, the operators said it should include only the revenue from core mobile phone services.