Levies put Vodafone future in doubt

Vodafone said its future in India could be in doubt unless the government stopped hitting operators with higher taxes and charges.

On Tuesday, Vodafone Plc reported a loss of 1.9 billion euros in the first half ended September 30 which, it said, “primarily reflects losses in relation to Vodafone Idea post an adverse judgment against the industry by the Supreme Court of India”.

On October 24, the Supreme Court had ordered legacy telecom players such as Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) and Bharti Airtel to pay licence fee arrears since 2003 of over Rs 1.3 lakh crore within the next three months.

The department of telecom had quantified Vodafone Idea’s repayment burden at Rs 28,310 crore but this could be substantially higher.