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By Nupur Anand and Aftab Ahmed
MUMBAI, Sept 13 (Reuters) - 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.
An Indian 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
just 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".
Vodafone Idea's gross debt as of June 30 was 1.9 trillion
rupees, comprising of deferred spectrum payment obligations of
1.06 trillion rupees and an adjusted gross revenue liability of
621.8 billion rupees, its latest stock exchange filing in June
showed.
The adjusted gross revenue is the usage and licensing fee
that telecom operators are charged by the Indian government.
The mobile operator also reported that it owes 234 billion
Indian rupees ($3.18 billion) to financial institutions.
Senior SBI officials and representatives of the
Indian Banks' Association (IBA) met finance and telecom
department officials this month and proposed an immediate
breather on the repayment of spectrum dues, the two bankers and
the government official, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.
"We've had these discussions with the banks but the issue is
the finance ministry needs to be comfortable with the measures,"
the government official said.
SBI, IBA, and the finance and telecom departments did not
respond to Reuters requests seeking comment.
The company is facing a repayment of 5-10 billion rupees of
non-convertible debentures around January, one of the bankers
said.
Vodafone Idea declined to comment. Vodafone Group did not
immediately reply to an email seeking comment. An Aditya Birla
Group spokesman declined to comment.
Vodafone Idea had cash and cash equivalents of 9.2 billion
rupees at the end of June, a transcript of a company conference
call published on its website said.
"All eyes are on New Delhi right now as banks are getting
increasingly nervous," another banker with exposure to Vodafone
Idea said.
The bankers have also proposed providing some relief to
Vodafone by restructuring its dues, one government official and
two bankers said.
Birla stepped down as chairman early last month after
appealing for the government bailout.
The government has been considering a broader package to
help a telecom industry disrupted by the 2016 entry of Mukesh
Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio, which shook up the market with
its free voice and cut-price data plans.
($1 = 73.6380 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nupur Anand in Mumbai and Aftab Ahmed in New
Delhi; Editing by Alexander Smith)
