Vodafone Idea urges government to set floor prices for telecom services

Ahead of the Digital Communication Commission (DCC) meeting, Vodafone Idea has requested the government to take immediate steps to set a floor price and cut down the license fee and spectrum usage charges payable by the telecom firms.

The company, which is facing severe crises after the Supreme Court verdict on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR), also asked the government to adjust the GST refund of Rs 8,000 crore with its AGR dues.

The debt-hit company made these demands ahead of DCC, the highest decision-making body's of the Department of Telecom, meeting, which is scheduled on Thursday.

The meeting is likely to discuss various proposals before the government to address the telecom sector crises including setting up an exclusive fund to lend money at concessional rates to telecom firms to enable them to repay AGR dues and allowing the company make staggered payment of their dues.

The DCC meeting comes against the backdrop of top telecom firms heads meeting the Union Communication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for the past few days. Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Vodafone Idea Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran met the Minister.

With the telecom firms disputing the government claim of AGR dues, the Department of Telecom has also planning to conduct a third-party audit.

The DOT also asked the companies to expedite their self-assessment of AGR and submit the documents to substantiate their calculation.

Since Vodafone Idea is on the brink of collapse after the Supreme Court verdict on AGR, the government is desperately working on saving the sector to avoid any monopoly and duopoly.

Of the total AGR dues of Rs 1.47 lakh crore, so far Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 10,000 crore out of its estimated liability of Rs 35,000 crore, Vodafone Idea paid Rs 3,500 crore of the total dues of Rs 53,000 crore and Tata Teleservices paid Rs 2,197 crore against the government demand of Rs 14,000 crore and Jio paid its entire due of Rs 190 crore.