Mumbai: Vodafone Idea may pay about Rs 3000 crore of spectrum fee dues to the government this week. The company may take this step to prevent the bank guarantee from being redeemed. Its purpose may also be to indicate that the company has no intention of intentionally not repaying government liability.
Deadline for this payment is on Tuesday and telecom companies get a grace period of 10 days. Notices are then sent and the bank guarantee is redeemed. A person aware of the matter told, “Vodafone Idea can pay spectrum dues this week. May be this payment is made on Tuesday itself.
Vodafone Idea owes the Department of Telecommunications about Rs 53,000 crore arrears related to the Adjusted Gross Revenue. It has paid Rs 3,500 crore till now and is expecting some relief. He had said that if there is no relief, he may have to close the business.
An industry executive said, “Paying spectrum dues on time will send a strong message that the company wants to pay its financial liabilities and in cases where it is unable to do so, financial troubles are coming in.” According to a Goldman Sachs report, the company had a gross cash balance of $ 1.8 billion as of December 2019. Out of this, spectrum arrears of $ 45 crore are to be repaid by March 2020. The company has repaid about $ 49 million in AGR dues.
