In an attempt to deal with the acute financial stress increased in the telecom industry, Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) on Monday has announced that they would increase its tariff from December 1.
The announcement has come on the backdrop of its highest quarterly loss of Rs 50,922 crore amid an adverse Supreme Court ruling on adjusted gross revenue (AGR). VIL has said that the mobile data charges in India are the cheapest in the world even as the demand increases day by day.
“Vodafone Idea will suitably increase the prices of its tariffs effective 1 December 2019,” said in a statement released by the company. Indian telecom carriers have the lowest average revenue per user worldwide with Vodafone Idea’s subscriber revenue at nearly Rs 105 a month.
The government has set up a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) to look for a relief measures for the telecom industry to come out of the difficult time. The top court has also ordered on October 24, telecom companies to pay as much as Rs 1.30 lakh crore to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
“VIL will continue to actively invest in making its network future-fit by embedding new-age technologies and launching new products and services to cater to the evolving needs of its over 300 million customers,” the company added.
Even Bharti Airtel estimates AGR payment to be about Rs 28,450 crore. Both VIL and Airtel posted record losses in September quarter, with VIL loss widening to Rs 50,922 crore (Rs 4,874 crore) and that of Airtel is Rs 23,045 crore, impacted by provisioning for AGR.
“The acute financial stress in the telecom sector has been acknowledged by all stakeholders and a high-level Committee of Secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary is looking into providing appropriate relief,” VIL said.
