AGR verdict: Data could be the new Onion, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad

The need of the hour could be to let Vodafone-Idea continue with the business providing them an extended rope to make the payments over a period of time, than to kill the “goose”

Economy News: The Hon. Preeminent Court on Friday rapped the telecom administrators and requested them to pay the balanced gross income (AGR) contribution by the stroke of 12 PM on Friday. This is likened to an “Execution order” for Vodafone-Idea. The legitimate framework needs to observe the standard book and is bound by law. In any case, it’s the official which needs to “think and react quickly” and make sense of the best answer for this circumstance from a comprehensive perspective, versus nailing a “guilty party”.

Everyone’s eyes would be on the Telecom Minister, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, who should think “out-of-the-container” than take the simple way of toeing the Hon. Court’s order. Before closing Vodafone-Idea, the Telecom Minister should make sense of how to recuperate AGR duty from the cadavers of telecom division, viz. Dependence Communication (RCom), Aircel, Telenor, Sistema and Videocon. Not every person accompanies a rich family like the Tatas, who are satisfying off obligations of Tata Teleservices through the parent Tata Sons.

Presently, here is the thing that would occur if Vodafone-Idea were to close shop:

– Non-recuperation of contribution: It will invalidate the very point of AGR, transforming this imbroglio into a since a long time ago drawn procedure with no lucidity on conclusion.

– Job misfortunes: About 14,000 representatives, alongside various other people who are legitimately reliant on Vodafone-Idea as easygoing specialists, sellers, specialist organizations and so forth will endure.

– Non-performing resources (NPAs): Nearly Rs 1.15 trillion could turn NPA. This could be another IL&FS-type occasion. In contrast to different NPAs, the purported “resources” of a telecom organization can vanish in slim air the day it closes down. Moreover, who might bear the duty taking care of home advances, individual advances and so forth of the workers?..

Airtel, Voda Idea and Jio to hike mobile, data tariffs by up to 40%

Tariff hike for Airtel and Vodafone will be effective from Dec 3, while for Jio the new rates will be applicable from Dec 6

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea on Sunday announced a tariff hike in the range of 15 per cent and 40 per cent across different plans. The tariff hike by both companies will be applicable from December 3, 2019. Vodafone Idea on Sunday said its new plans for its prepaid products and services would be available across India, starting 00:00 hours of December 3, 2019.

Airtel’s new plans represent tariff increases in the range of a mere 50 paise per day to Rs 2.85 per day and offer generous data and calling benefits. “Our new mobile plans offer tremendous value to our customers and are backed by a superior network experience on Airtel’s nationwide 4G Shashwat Sharma, chief marketing officer, Bharti Airtel, said in the statement.

Reliance Jio also said it would be introducing new plans with unlimited voice and data. These plans will have a fair usage policy for calls to other mobile networks. The new plans will be effective from December 6, 2019. “Although the new all-in-one plans will be priced up to 40 per cent higher, staying true to its promise of being customer-first, Reliance Jio customers will get up to 300 per cent more benefits,” Reliance Jio said in a release.

Vodafone Idea reported a massive pre-tax loss of Rs 36,959 crore in Q2 after it provided for payments related to AGR. The company took a hit of Rs 30,774 crore (including AGR) for the quarter. This led to a loss of Rs 50,922 crore at the net level — the highest-ever for an Indian company. The company had posted a loss of Rs 4,974 crore in the year-ago quarter, while the loss in the April-June quarter was Rs 4,874 crore….

Telecom tariff: Jio to follow Airtel, Voda Idea, raise rates in a few weeks

In anticipation of the tariff hike, Reliance Industries’ market cap crossed the Rs 9.5-trillion mark on Tuesday

Reliance Jio, which disrupted the telecom market ever since its commercial launch in 2016, has decided to follow rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in raising mobile phone tariffs. Having kicked off a no holds barred tariff war three years ago, the Mukesh Ambani-owned firm is now stepping back.

According to sources in the know, the tariff hike decision by the telcos is in response to the government wanting the industry to stop the long-drawn price war and set their house in order. In the absence of a tariff hike, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) may have been forced to impose a floor price for the operators. Also, the government has been of the view that any relief measure for the telecom industry should be given only after telcos get out of the price war, that has left the incumbent operators with record losses and high debt, the sources said.

On Tuesday evening, reliance Jio announced it would take measures including “appropriate increase in tariffs’’ in the next few weeks. The move, industry watchers believe, may bring down the pitch of the bitter battle between the incumbents and a new player. Jio’s announcement comes a day after Airtel and Vodafone Idea said they were hiking tariffs from December 1.

In its statement, Jio has asked the government to mandate a ‘2G mukt’ India in the shortest time if the objectives of Digital India mission has have to be achieved. The Jio demand for a 2G-free country is significant as it’s the only operator offering just 4G services pan-India. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea still have a bulk of their customers using 2G….

AGR impact: Voda Idea posts biggest quarterly loss in India Inc history

AGR liability leads to pre-tax loss of Rs 36,959 crore

Vodafone Idea reported a massive pre-tax loss of Rs 36,959 crore for the July-September quarter after it provided for payments related to adjusted gross revenues, or AGR. The company took a hit of Rs 30,774 crore (including AGR) for the quarter. This led to a loss of Rs 50,922 crore at the net level, the highest-ever for an Indian company. The company had posted a loss of Rs 4,974 crore in the year-ago quarter while the loss in the June quarter was Rs 4,874 crore.

Giving a break-up of the liabilities on account of AGR, the company provisioned for Rs 27,610 crore on account of licence fees and Rs 16,540 crore, including interest and penalties on interest, related to spectrum usage charges (SUC) up to September 30, 2019. Liabilities on account of AGR are Rs 25,678 crore. The estimate is based on demands received from Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and additional estimates.

While the company has provided for SUC, considering that no spectrum is used for generating non-telecom income, it is evaluating the levy of SUC on such income. The company is in the process of filing a petition to review the Supreme Court judgment of AGR.Revenue from operations stood at Rs 10,844 crore, down 3.8 per cent down from the last quarter. This was marginally lower than the Bloomberg consensus estimates of Rs 10,925 crore. The results were impacted by seasonality and severe floods in many of its key markets. On a year-on-year basis, revenue recovered by 41.5 per cent....