Vodafone Idea Pays Rs 1000 Crore To Department of Telecom
Vodafone Idea paid Rs 1,000 crore to the Telecommunications Department (DoT) in lieu of statutory dues, news agency Press Trust of India reported citing a senior official.
This followed a payment by the beleaguered telecom service provider of Rs 2,500 crore on Monday, which represented only a portion of the total amount of Rs 53,000 crore that it owes the government in taxes, interest, and penalties.
The government ordered mobile carriers like Vodafone Idea to pay thousands of crores of rupees in dues immediately last week after the Supreme Court charged the companies and officials with contempt proceedings for failing to implement an earlier decision.
Analysts following the country’s telecoms industry believe Vodafone Idea is the most vulnerable of its three major wireless carriers and if it shuts down shop, the business will shape up as a duopoly of Bharti Airtel’s rivals and Jio’s Reliance Industries.
Bharti Airtel said on Monday it had paid Rs 10,000 crore for the dues.
According to the Press Trust of India, the DoT source said notices will also be sent to Tata Teleservices for the recovery of full dues in a day or two. The Tata Group company paid Rs 2,197 crore to the government on Monday and the telecommunications department pegged its outstanding amount to more than Rs 14,000 crore.
Vodafone Idea has previously stated its ability to continue as a corporation was dependent on the Supreme Court allowing it to change issues such as deadlines for payment with the government.
Vodafone Idea shares jumped as much as 18.85% in the first half of the session to reach Rs 4.98 apiece on the BSE.
Vodafone Idea shares traded on the stock exchange at 1:56 p.m. 4.30% higher at Rs 4.37, underperforming the Sensex benchmark index, which dropped 0.06 percent in the midst of lackluster trading.
The S&P BSE Telecom index— including 13 stocks like Bharti Airtel — was up 1.20% at the time, cutting some of the gains after growing to 1.56% during the session.
