INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm said Bharti Airtel can easily raise Rs 40,000 croreBillionaire Mukesh Ambani's
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd
opposed any move by the government to provide financial relief to rival telecom operators, which have been ordered to pay $7 billion in past
dues, saying they had adequate recourse to funds.Bharti Airtel Ltd
can easily raise Rs 40,000 crore ($5.7 billion) by selling some of its assets or shares, while Vodafone Idea Ltd
has no dearth of resources to pay the government its dues, Reliance Jio said in a statement dated November 1 and issued Sunday
The Supreme Court had last month ordered Bharti and Vodafone Idea to pay Rs 49,990 crore.If Airtel liquidates "small parts of its assets or
issues 15-20 per cent new equity," in its Indus Tower business it can easily raise the funds, Kapoor Singh Guliani, president for regulatory
affairs at Reliance Jio, said in the letter
Vodafone India also has stake in Indus Towers, "thus there is no dearth of sources to pay" their dues, he said.Airtel's tower business
operates more than 1,63,000 mobile-phone towers across India.The letter addressed to the telecom minister comes after a government panel
agreed to examine Bharti, controlled by billionaire Sunil Mittal, and Vodafone's demand for reducing the spectrum usage levies and the
Universal Service Obligation Fund charge
The two carriers are struggling, with Vodafone Idea, led by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, posting 11 straight quarters of net losses and
Bharti slipping into its first-ever loss in the June quarter.Reliance separately cited a Supreme Court verdict that held spectrum as a
finite resource and its distribution should not be made in a manner that's detrimental to public interest.All operators should be mandated
to deposit applicable amounts within the three-month time period, as mandated by the court, Reliance said.Get Breaking news, live coverage,
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