Banks call on government to ease pressure on Vodafone Idea, sources say
The Hindu
“All eyes are on New Delhi right now as banks are getting increasingly nervous,” another banker with exposure to Vodafone Idea said.
Banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) have called on the Indian government to give debt-laden Vodafone Idea more time to clear its tax dues and spectrum fees, two bankers and a government official familiar with the matter said. A court last year ordered the mobile carrier, a joint venture between the Indian unit of Britain’s Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular, to pay over $8 billion to the government to settle long-standing dues. Vodafone has a stake of about 44% in the company and Aditya Birla owns nearly 27%. In June, Vodafone Idea’s then non-executive chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla warned that without a government reprieve the Indian mobile carrier’s “financial situation will drive its operations to an irretrievable point of collapse”.More Related News