Vodafone Idea pays its principal portion of government dues

Bengaluru: Indian mobile carrier Vodafone Idea Ltd on Monday (March 16, 2020) said it had settled the entire principal portion of the dues it owed to the government after paying an additional 33.54 billion rupees ($451.34 million).

As per its own assessment of what the company needs to pay, Vodafone Idea said it had settled the entire 68.54 billion rupees in principal amount, out of the total 215.33 billion rupees, which include interest up to February 2020.

The payment comes after India's top court last month threatened telecom operators and government officials with contempt proceedings for failing to implement an October ruling that ordered telcos to pay 920 billion rupees in overdue levies and interest to the government.

Analysts had called Vodafone Idea the most imperilled from the telecom dues as it was burdened with the largest share of the total dues demanded by the government.

In contrast, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio is the least impacted since it is the newest Indian telecom player.

Bharti Airtel Ltd last month said it had complied with the court order after it paid more than $1.08 billion to the Department of Telecommunications.