Sunil Mittal at MWC23

“The return on capital in the telecom business is very low and a tariff hike is likely to be the mid of this year. The telco has a healthy balance sheet and there is no need to raise any more capital.

Lot of capital has been injected that has made the balance sheet strong but the return on capital of this industry is very low. That needs to change. We are talking of small increments that need to come in the Indian tariff situation. I hope half (by mid) of this year.

Salaries have gone up, rents have gone except one thing. There is no one complaining. People are consuming 30 GB for almost paying nothing.

For a country the size of India, there should be three operators. The question is, will the third be now a stronger BSNL or would Vi have a place to play as well. Government has done its best now. It is for Vi to now take advantage of it.

We don’t need more Vodafone (Idea) type of scenarios in the country. And I think the government is fully conscious, regulators are conscious. And I think that people are also conscious that it’s very important that we have robust, viable companies who can invest in new technologies, go to rural areas, provide fantastic coverage and capacity,” added Mittal.

Bharti has never been in talks to buy a stake in digital payments company Paytm,” he added.

CT Bureau