DoT to approve Vodafone Idea's third quarter payment plan soon: Report

Vi had earlier submitted a payment plan as it has paid only 10 per cent of the dues for the period

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will soon approve the plan proposed by Vodafone Idea (Vi) to clear its third quarter dues, including licence fee and spectrum usage charges, a report by the Economic Times (ET) said. 

The telco had earlier submitted a payment plan as it has paid only 10 per cent of the dues for the period. "They have submitted a plan saying tha the dues will be paid along with interest in a phased manner," an official told ET. 

Vi's payments for the previous two quarters averaged around Rs 600 to 800 crore for licence fee and Rs 250 crore for spectrum usage charges (SUC). Telcos pay around 8 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as the license fee and 3-4 per cent as their SUC. However, with 5G, the SUC is going down sharply because the new spectrum had zero SUC. 

The report added that the Centre, that now owns 32 per cent stake in the telco, is aware of its cash constraints. As of December 2022, the net debt of the firm stood at Rs 2.28 trillion. It had Rs 160 crore in cash as the balance. 

Vi has also been struggling to raise funds and is losing customers every month. In February, as a relief to the telco, DoT announced the conversion of firm's accrued interest worth Rs 16,133 crore into equity.   

With the completion of conversion, the telco might be able to free up some cash for additional investment. The company said that this might also help them in generating more income from operations and it may start paying the vendor dues. 

Also, the promoters of the company are likely to infuse Rs 5,000 crore into the company. It is expected to be followed by fuding from third-party investors.