Relief Measures For Telecom Sector Likely To Come In Phased Manner

The telecom industry is suffering due to the financial crisis and waiting for a relief package from the government. However, there are chances that the relief package for telcos might come up in a phased manner. Notably, Vodafone-Idea is under a deep financial crisis and trying its best to come out of the situation.

Kumar Manglam Birla Met Telecom Minister

Despite the fact that the Department of Telecommunication is working on a relief package for the telcos, Kumar Mangalam Birla has reportedly met new telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnav. This development comes one month after Birla resigned from the merged entity Vodafone-Idea.

"The focus is to get going, to start announcing relief measures and while some are expected in the next few days, more could follow later," a senior government official was quoted by ET.

The report said that DoT might announce relief measures in a phased manner, which means the ministry is likely to bring changes one by one. However, Vodafone-Idea has not made any announcement on the same front.

It is worth noting that the telecom operators and COAI have requested changes in adjusted gross revenue definition, reduction in spectrum license fees, and increasing time limit for clearing spectrum payment, which was bought in a recently concluded auction.

Vodafone-Idea Dues In India

India's third-largest telecom Vodafone-Idea has to pay a debt of Rs. 1.9 lakh crores, where adjusted gross revenue stood at Rs. 58, 254 crores. The telecom operator has already paid Rs. 7,824 crores dues and needs to clear Rs. 9,000 by March-end.

"While banks have repayments coming up in December and later next year, Vodafone has to pay significantly more on account of statutory payments in AGR and spectrum dues. We are holding meetings on this account and hope some solution soon emerges," industry sources said.

Last year, the telecom operator announced its plans to raise Rs. 25,000 crores, but failed to manage the same. Currently, the insolvency of Vodafone-Idea has been not discussed. In fact, the Cellular Operators Association Of India believes that until and unless any telecom operator exhaust all resources of revenues, it will not file for bankruptcy.