Jio opposes bailout

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio on Thursday strongly opposed any bailout to telecom companies at taxpayer’s expense, and asserted that telcos should be mandated to deposit their dues within the court-stipulated timeline of three months, as they have the capacity to comfortably clear their liabilities.

In a letter to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday, Jio argued that even an unlikely event of failure of two operators will not have an adverse impact on the sector dynamics given the “existence of vibrant competition including presence of the PSUs” as well as absence of any restriction on entry of new operators.

Jio said it did not agree with COAI’s alarmist views that telecom sector will collapse in absence of immediate relief by the government.