India grants Vodafone Idea moratorium on telecom dues (updated)

Vodafone Idea

31/12/2025 09:46

Government moratorium defers $9.76 billion dues to 2030s, source says

Vodafone Idea shares drop 11% as investors had hoped for a waiver

Moratorium provides cash-flow relief without reducing headline dues

Rewrites throughout to add details about relief measures

Dec 31 (Reuters) - India has approved a partial moratorium on Vodafone Idea's VODA.NS adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, freezing $9.76 billion in payments and deferring repayments to the 2030s, a government source told Reuters on Wednesday, disappointing investors hoping for a waiver.

The measure halts further interest or penalties and pushes repayment into the next decade, with payments to begin in 2031-32 and run through 2040-41, giving the telecom operator near-term cash-flow relief without cutting headline dues.

Vodafone Idea's shares plunged 11% as investors had hoped for a bigger relaxation after India's top court in November said that the government should consider the company's relief request for all of its AGR dues.

     "The five-year moratorium gives the company recovery time. The Street anticipated a waiver of some sort, but that has not happened," said Vinit Bolinjkar, head of research at Ventura Securities.

Telecom operators, including Vodafone Idea, have long contested the government's method of calculating AGR, which determines the license fees and other dues.

The government, which holds a 49% stake in the firm, had earlier this year said it would convert a part of Vodafone Idea's outstanding spectrum auction dues into equity.

The government source said that the AGR dues for 2017-18 and 2018-19, already finalised by a 2020 Supreme Court order, will continue to be paid on the existing schedule from 2025 to 2031.

Vodafone Idea in a regulatory filing on Wednesday said it had not received any communication about the measure.

($1 = 89.8370 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Nigam Prusty, Vivek Kumar M and Komal Salecha, writing by Chandini Monnappa; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sonia Cheema)

 ((Chandini.M@thomsonreuters.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandini-monnappa-8a37b013b/;))