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Highlights
- Vodaone Idea Limited (VIL), the third-largest telecom operator in India, seems to be getting everything right now.
- The telco's luck has also turned around, and it has just won a case against the Indian government.
- The Indian government had claimed that the Vodafone Idea needs to pay Rs 363 crore worth of goods and services tax (GST), which it had not on the sale of Vodafone Mobile Services.
Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
Vodaone Idea Limited (VIL), the third-largest telecom operator in India, seems to be getting everything right now. The telco’s luck has also turned around, and it has just won a case against the Indian government. The Indian government had claimed that the Vodafone Idea needs to pay Rs 363 crore worth of goods and services tax (GST), which it had not on the sale of Vodafone Mobile Services. For the unaware, during the merger, Vodafone Idea had sold the Vodafone Mobile Services’ tower business to the ATC Telecom Infrastructure.
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The government claimed that the tax for this sale has not been paid to the national exchequer. However, the Supreme Court (SC) did not amuse this request or claim by the central government.
Supreme Court Says Vodafone Idea Does Not Need to Pay Rs 363 Crore to Government
The Supreme Court bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala said that Vodafone Mobile Services has ceased to exist after the merger of Vodafone and Idea. And, since that entity does not exist, how can the government demand tax from it. This decision was also given by the Bombay High Court on April 29, 2026. However, the government did not agree and challenged it at the Supreme Court.
This ruling will certainly help Vodafone Idea’s cashflow situaton, which despite plenty of positives, has not improved much. Further, Vi has plenty of liabilities that will need to be paid in the coming months and years. So an additional Rs 363 crore would not have helped the case of the company. Vodafone Idea is currently focused on trying to raise funds from the banks via debt as well as investors. The telco needs to raise several thousand crores to fuel its capex plan of Rs 45,000 crore. The promoter Aditya Birla Group is backing the company to make a turnaround and now the eyes of the market will be on the performance in the coming quarters.
