Reliance to turn Jio net debt free

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) made a big-bang announcement late on Friday evening of its decision to set up a wholly owned subsidiary that will house Reliance Jio

Infocomm and all its digital initiatives — accompanied by a bold financial restructuring exercise that seeks to transfer all of RJio’s Rs 1.08 lakh crore liabilities to RIL, leading to RJio turning “virtually” net debt free by the end of this current fiscal.

The Reliance move caps a tumultous pre-Diwali week for the telecom industry that first witnessed the merger of MTNL and BSNL followed by a Supreme Court verdict on Thursday that hugely widened the scope of adjusted gross revenue of operators and saddled them with mammoth Rs 92,000-crore dues,