Indian telecom companies Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are checking options and formulating strategies after the Supreme Court last week ordered them to pay dues, collectively running up to 1.3 trillion rupees (US$18.3 billion), to the telecommunication department, reported The Financial Times.
The court order has come as a huge blow to the companies – both of which have been struggling to survive the predatory competition unleashed by Reliance Jio, owned by India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.
The dispute between the telecom companies and the telecommunication department was over how much money the former should pay as license and spectrum fees.
The judgment, which ended a decade-long legal battle in a sector reeling from the launch three years ago of Mukesh Ambani’s low-cost Reliance Jio, is the latest in a series of blows to Vodafone in India that have made it a lightning rod for critics of New Delhi’s treatment of foreign investors.
Full Content: Financial Times
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