RCom Deposits Rs 131 Cr Towards Ericsson Dues

Reliance Communications (RCom) has deposited Rs 131 crore with the Supreme Court registry as partial payment towards its dues to Swedish firm Ericsson.

RCom owes dues of about Rs 550 crore to Ericsson and the matter is pending in the Supreme Court.

In a statement on Monday, RCom said it had deposited the partial payment of Rs 131 crore to Ericsson with the Supreme Court Registry, from the operational funds available with the company.

Besides, the Supreme Court has given four weeks’ time to file its response to the contempt petition filed by Ericsson. The Swedish firm has been given one week’s time to file its rejoinder. The matter will be taken up for hearing thereafter. Ericsson had moved initiation of contempt proceedings for the second time against Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani for allegedly not complying with its order to clear dues of Rs 550 crore.

Reliance Communications has a total debt of over Rs 47,000 crore.

The company said it has taken all required steps towards enabling the settlement and remains fully committed to making the payment to Ericsson from the proceeds of the spectrum sale.

The spectrum trading deal between RCom and Reliance Jio has been pending approval from the Department of Telecommunications. The deal has hit a hurdle after Reliance Jio refused to bear the burden on any past dues that RCom owes to the government.

Last year, RCom signed a pact with Reliance Jio for the sale of wireless spectrum, tower, fibre and media convergence nodes assets – the proceeds of which were to be used to pare debt. RCom expects to get Rs 975 crore from the sale of the spectrum, from which the dues of Ericsson of Rs 550 crore were to be paid and another Rs 230 crore to settle dues of minority stakeholder Reliance Infratel. – DNA