Airtel on Monday paid Rs 9,500 crore and Rs 500 crore on behalf of Bharti Hexacom Ltd. to the Department of Telecom towards adjusted gross revenue (AGR), the company has said in a statement. Telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Tele are jointly liable to pay dues of over Rs 1 lakh crore.

"The total amount of Rs 10,000 crore has been paid on behalf of Bharti Airtel, Bharti Hexacom, and Telenor.

"We are in a process of completing the self-assessment exercise expeditiously and will duly make the balance paid upon completion of the same before the next hearing of Supreme Court," the company added.

The company said it will also submit supporting details at the time of making balance payments. The telecom department on February 14 began issuing orders asking firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to clear past dues immediately. The DoT, which faced the ire of the Supreme Court for putting on hold recovery of dues from telecom companies, had started issuing circle or zone-wise demand notices to the firms.

Airtel had previously responded to DoT order by offering to pay Rs 10,000 crore by February 20 and the remaining before March 17. Airtel owes nearly Rs 35,586 crore, including license fee and spectrum usage charge, to the government.