India's Supreme Court rejected a request by telecom companies including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel to correct alleged errors in calculating the license fee they owe to the government, television channel NDTV Profit reported on Thursday.

Shares of Indian wireless carriers plunged on Thursday after the country’s top court rejected the firms’ request to re-calculate about $13 billion of past dues that they owe to the government.

Supreme Court on Thursday turned down a request by telecom companies including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel to recalculate the amount they owe the government in licence fees. This has come to the fore in a court order.

India's top court on Thursday rejected a request by telecom companies to recalculate the dues they owed the government, sending shares of debt-saddled Vodafone Idea and its peers down. Analysts at ICRA estimate that Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel owe 1 trillion rupees ($12 billion) in past dues,