Sources told News18 that to provide relief to the stressed telecom sector, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a moratorium on payment of spectrum dues by telcos. This will provide much needed time to ailing telecom operators like Vodafone Idea, who have to pay thousands of crores of rupees in unorganized past statutory dues.
Former Vodafone Idea Ltd chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla had earlier written to the cabinet secretary offering his stake in Vodafone Idea free of cost to the government or any company approved by the government. On 4 August, billionaire Birla resigned as the chairman of crisis-hit Vodafone Idea Ltd.
VIL, which was created out of the merger of British telecom giant Vodafone’s India arm and Birla’s Idea Cellular Ltd, has to pay around Rs 50,399.63 crore in statutory dues over the past several years.
However, some within the government are using taxpayer money to bailout telecom companies that failed to make provision for statutory dues pending legal cases.
Overall, the telecom relief package is likely to outline reforms for the sector through a moratorium on unpaid dues, potentially redefining AGR (adjusted gross revenue) and cutting spectrum usage charges, a source said. .
The package, which was initially widely expected to be taken up by the cabinet last week, will offer a breather to the three private player industry, at a time when VIL is facing an existential crisis.
Sources said the measures would be tentative, and would pave the way for reforms in the sector.
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