The telecom industry of India is eagerly waiting for a relief package from the government to come through. According to the latest developments, the relief package for the sector might come in a phased manner. There is a chance that all the benefits are announced at the same time, but the chances of the benefits coming in a phased manner are higher. The relief package from the government will benefit the ailing sector majorly. It will especially benefit Vodafone Idea (Vi), which is struggling to make ends meet.
Kumar Mangalam Birla Meets With Ashwini Vaishnav
The Indian business tycoon, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla, recently met with the union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnav. The development comes from an ET Telecom report, but it doesn’t exactly mention the topic of conversation between the two. There’s a high chance that their conversation revolved around the relief package for the sector. Birla knows the need for an immediate relief package so that the financial stress of the Vodafone Idea can be lifted in the short term. A senior government official aware of the matter told ET Telecom that the relief measures would start coming in one by one. The official said that the focus of the government is to get going so that the stress from the sector could be lifted as fast as possible. The relief package would also benefit other telcos such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. The government might reduce the license fees (LF) for the telcos, and the adjusted gross revenues (AGR) might be defined in a new way that might exclude all the non-telecom revenues. It is worth noting that Birla stepped down as the non-executive Chairman of the company almost a month back and had written to the government about his wish to sell his promoter share in Vodafone Idea. It will be worth waiting for the relief package to see what it exactly brings for the operators.
