Airtel, Voda Idea, BSNL and MTNL's debt zooms to Rs 3.85 trillion in FY21

Their debt-to-equity ratio shot up to 6.83 times from 2.3 times at the end of March 2020

Mobile operators with the exception of Reliance Jio are in a much worse financial condition than expected earlier.

The combined borrowing of the four incumbent operators — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) — reached an all-time high of Rs 3.85 trillion at the end of March this year.

The companies’ combined debt was up 22.4 per cent year-on-year last financial year against 8.3 per cent growth in their borrowing in the previous year.

As a result, the incumbent operators’ debt-equity ratio shot up to an unsustainably high level of 6.83X at the end of March