Debt position of the Major Telecom companies

4738.  SHRI BHOLANATH (B.P. SAROJ)

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government proposes New Telecom Policy in the country and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government proposes relief packages to Telecom sector and if so, the details thereof;

(c) the details of the reasons behind supporting private telecom companies along with the contract details during their award;

(d) the reasons for changing policies of Government to favour the private telecom players; and

(e) the details of the present debt position of the telecom companies in the country?

(a) to (d) The Government has approved various structural and procedural reforms in the telecom sector to promote healthy competition, protect interests of consumers, infuse liquidity, encourage investment and reduce regulatory burden on Telecom Service Providers (TSPs). These reforms include rationalization of adjusted gross revenue, rationalization of bank guarantees (BGs), rationalization of interest rates and removal of penalties, dispensing with the requirement of BGs (for auctions held after 15.09.2021) to secure instalment payments, permission for surrender of spectrum after 10 years, removal of additional SUC of 0.5% for spectrum sharing, permission for 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in telecom sector under automatic route subject to safeguards, easing Standing Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency Allocation (SACFA) clearance for telecom towers; and addressing liquidity requirements of the Telecom Service Providers by way of moratorium/deferment etc.

The debt position of the Major Telecom companies
S. No.	Name of the company	Debt amount (₹ in Crore)
1	Airtel	103408.10
2	Reliance Jio	42486.00
3	Vodafone Idea	191073.90
4	BSNL	40400.13
5	Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL)	20162.04
6	Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML)	19703.84

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