Support Telecomtalk
Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
Previously, Idea Cellular had proposed a plan to DoT asking for the limit of FDI in the newly ‘to be merged’ company to be extended to 100%. In the coming week, the proposal has been expected to get the affirmative from the department. Officials confirmed the news after the Aditya Birla company submitted all required documents and when Vodafone India did the same. This approval would mean that the Idea Vodafone merger will just be one step away from approaching completion.
- Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
-
-
A senior official said about the merger to ET as “They have submitted all the documents… we want to clear it at the earliest, it should happen maybe within a week.” He further added, “After that, there should be no hurdle for the merger.” He stated that after the FDI clearance the merger should be on its way within days. It is notable that the deal which Vodafone and Idea signed in March 2017 will finally materialise in the form of Rs 63,000 crore entity by the end of June this year.
As part of the approval of the FDI limit, which DoT asserted in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Vodafone will take on the debt of the merged entity which it will owe to the DoT. The DoT has made sure to include this in the approval which has been recently signed off.
The payment which is being talked here, of the combined entity, amounts to Rs 18,870 crore as a result of pending licence fees, spectrum usage charges (SUC) and one-time spectrum charges (OTSC). However, even though the government might be tempted to force the telcos’ hand to pay the license fee or the SUC dues, it won’t be able to do so since the issue of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) which has been under dispute for more than a decade and under sub judice is the underlying factor in the payment.
