Vodafone Idea will shut shop if govt doesn’t provide relief: KM Birla

Vodafone Idea Ltd, India’s third largest mobile service provider, will shut down if the government does not provide relief on the liability it faces in past statutory dues following a Supreme Court order, its billionaire chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said on Friday. “If we we are not getting anything then I think it is end of story for Vodafone Idea,” Birla said at the HT Leadership Summit when asked about the future of Vodafone Idea in absence of a government relief on payment of Rs 53,038 crore dues.

Birla’s Idea Cellular and British telecom giant Vodafone plc’s India unit had merged last year to compete with the onslaught of free voice calling and dirt cheap data unleashed by richest Indian Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio.