Explained | Vodafone and Airtel's historic losses

Bharti Airtel posted a massive net loss of ₹22,830.1 crore for the quarter ended September 30 due to the ‘significant financial implication’ following the recent Supreme Court ruling in favour of the Department of Telecom’s interpretation of adjusted gross revenues (AGR).For the quarter, the company, which had posted net profit of ₹249.2 crore in Q2 of last year, recognised exceptional items of ₹22,394.4 crore.Vodafone Idea, India’s second largest telco by number of subscribers reported a record net loss of ₹50,992 crore, largest in Indian corporate history due to one-time provision of ₹30,774.5 crore made due to unfavourable Supreme Court ruling.“Consequent to the recent judgement by Supreme Court, we have accounted for the estimated liability of ₹27,610 crore related to license fee and ₹16,540 crore related to spectrum usage charges up to September 30, 2019 including the interest, penalty and interest thereon of ₹33,010 crore,” said Vodafone Idea in a statement adding that this estimate is based on demands received from DoT till date, an estimation for the period for which demands have not been raised, together with interest and penalty adjusting for certain computation corrections.