India orders wireless carriers to pay Us$13bil in past dues

NEW DELHI: India’s top court has ordered several telecom carriers, including Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone Idea Ltd and many defunct ones, to pay the government as much as 920 billion rupees (Us$13bil) in past dues, dealing a blow to the businesses already struggling to make profits and pare debt.

The Supreme Court, in a ruling read out by a two-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, said it would decide on the timeline for payments. Yesterday’s decision possibly puts an end to the two-decades-old legal dispute over airwaves fees owed to the government.

The operators have disputed for years over how authorities calculate their annual adjusted gross revenue, a share of which is paid as licence and spectrum fees. With the ruling, the court upheld the government’s method, while rejecting the companies’ plea to exclude revenue from non-telecommunications businesses.

The court order is the latest shock to an industry that has piled on billions of dollars in debt to roll out 3G and 4G networks in the past decade, even as intense competition for users led to a brutal tariff war, weighing on earnings. Bharti, controlled by tycoon Sunil Mittal, and billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla’s venture with Vodafone Group Plc have a combined net debt of almost Us$28bil.

The worst hit are the operators who have been in the business for more than 10 years, while it is far less consequential for Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, which entered in 2016 and owes the least among all – 130 million rupees.

Shares of Vodafone Idea plunged as much as 24% to a record low in Mumbai, while Airtel tumbled as much as 9.7% before reversing the losses. Reliance Industries Ltd, the parent of Jio, rallied 3.2%.

“We’re disappointed with the verdict,” Airtel said in a statement. “This decision has come at a time when the sector is facing severe financial stress and may further weaken the viability of the sector as a whole. The government must review the impact of this decision and find suitable ways to mitigate the financial burden on the already stressed industry.”

Since Jio disrupted the market with free calls and cheap data, the incumbents have struggled to stay afloat. Two have entered insolvency in the past two years, while some have merged to combine forces, like Vodafone’s local unit with Idea Cellular Ltd.

For the government that runs perennial budget deficits, the court ruling comes as a fiscal bonanza. On Wednesday, Telecommunications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad revealed a Us$6bil spending plan to revive two money-losing state-run carriers.

The government had raised a total demands of around 920 billion rupees against all telecom operators, including defunct ones, according to filings in the court.