Cabinet may consider relief package for telecom sector on Wednesday

The Union Cabinet may consider on Wednesday a moratorium on payment of spectrum dues by telecom firms as part of a package for the sector aimed at giving relief to companies such as Vodafone Idea that have to pay thousands of crores of rupees in unprovisioned past statutory dues. The relief package under consideration includes telecom firms getting an option to convert interest on spectrum dues of the four-year moratorium period into government equity, three sources with the knowledge of the development said.

The move comes six weeks after billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla resigned as chairman of beleaguered Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) on August 4.