Vodafone’s global CEO requested a meeting with the telecom minister of India.

Nick Read, the Global Chief executive officer of Vodafone Plc, is planning to visit India on 6 March and made a request for a meeting with the telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, a person who is aware of the matter sais requesting anonymity. But the meeting still has not bee confirmed by the government. The meeting has come at a time when its India entity formed by the merging Vodafone India with that of Idea cellular of the Aditya Birla group which has been facing a survival crisis due to an unfavorable court verdict. The Supreme Court upheld the government’s definition of adjusted gross revenue last year. Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) is the revenue on which it calculates levies on the telecom operators. The order dealt a blow to the telecom industry. In the past dues of over ₹50,000 crores, Vodafone Idea is the worst hit by the verdict. 

The company has requested urgent relief and also suggested a license fee, along with the spectrum usage that needs to be reduced. And that is its goods and services tax credits worth ₹8,000 crores shall be adjusted against the dues. It also requested that after the adjustments, payment of balance amount of interest, penalty, and interest on the penalty that should be allowed in a staggered manner. Vodafone India Ltd has demanded the government to set a minimum price of ₹35 for 1 GB of mobile data along with this a month’s connectivity charges of ₹50 to support a recovery of the telecom sector.