Indian government backpedals over operator fees

Indian officials have reportedly been told not to take ‘coercive action’ if Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel don’t pay their massive bills by today’s deadline.

The news comes courtesy of the Financial Express, which reports that the department of telecoms has decided not to do anything when the two operator groups fail to pay up. And it knows they won’t because they have told it as much, apparently. Last week the Indian Supreme Court refused to review its decision demanding the payment of historical license fees plus fines sand interest.

Reliance Jio, which owes far less because it hasn’t been around for long and is owned by India’s richest man, has paid-up, we’re told. It looks like the pretext for this fresh concession from the government is a fresh round of appeals from the two operators, but the real reason seems to be that they’re increasingly calling the government’s bluff over this cash.

Vodafone has previously indicated it might just pull out of the country entirely if the bill is not at least reduced and the Indian telecoms market has undergone dramatic change and consolidation in the past few year, with Jio emerging as a dominant force. The government has put itself in the position of effectively destroying its telecoms industry with a series of missteps and the incumbent operators seem to be betting it lacks the will to robustly chase the debt. This decision indicates they may well have a point.