DoT nod soon for Vodafone Idea’s payment plan

The company had submitted the plan after the government asked it to provide a tentative date for making the payment as the telco is believed to have paid just around 10% of its statutory dues for the period.

“They have submitted a plan saying that the dues will be paid along with interest in a phased manner,” an official privy to the details told ET.

‘Telco may Now be Able to Secure Funding’
“We are processing it and what they have submitted can be allowed because the penalty is no longer there for delayed payments. They can make the payments along with interest for the delay in a phased manner.”

The telecom reforms announced by the government in September 2021 had scrapped the provision for charging penalty on top of interest for making delayed payments, including of statutory dues.

As per details available with ET, Vi is believed to have paid around Rs 80 crore as licence fee (LF) and Rs 15 crore as spectrum usage charges (SUC) for the October-December quarter.

The company’s payments for the previous two quarters averaged around ₹600-800 crore for LF and about ₹250 crore for SUC. Telcos typically pay 8% and 3-4% of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as licence fee and SUC, respectively. But the SUC element is going down sharply with the addition of 5G airwaves bought by telcos, including Vi, in the latest auction, which attracted zero SUC.

The official said the government – which now owns over 32% in the carrier – is aware of the fund constraints of Vi. The telco ended the December quarter with ₹ 2.28 lakh crore of net debt and ₹160 crore of cash. “Now that the equity conversion has happened, the company may be able to secure funding,” the official said.

The company executives have been meeting DoT officials regularly to update them on the funding and other issues including the rollout of 5G services.

“As far as the licence fee payments are concerned, it is right that we have paid less than the 100% amount. We are engaged with DoT; we have proposed a plan to them and we are requesting their support to allow us a slightly delayed payment in the interim. So those discussions are on,” Akshaya Moondra, chief executive of Vi, had said during an analyst call on the company’s fiscal third-quarter results.