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Vodafone Group Top Officials To Meet PM Narendra Modi On September 30

Vodafone Group chairman Gerard Kleisterlee and CEO Nick Read are expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on September 30.

The meeting assumes significance in the backdrop of the financial stress being faced by the telecom operators in the country with Vodafone Idea amongst them.

Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who’s also the chairman of Vodafone Idea, along with newly appointed CEO of Vodafone Idea Ravinder Takker, had had recently met Prasad in order to seek some relief for the sector.

According to sources, Vodafone Idea has been seeking a moratorium of two years regarding the deferred spectrum payment installments for spectrum bought in the previous auctions. The telecom industry has also been asking for lowering of levies on the sector, which currently constitute about 30% of its overall revenues.

Prasad on his part has written twice to the finance ministry to reduce the financial burden on the telecom industry.

The minister has sought reduction of GST on telecom to 12% from the current 18%. He has also urged to offset spectrum and other payments by telecom operators against the Rs 35,000 crore worth of input tax credit lying with the government.

Apart from that, Prasad has requested to reduce the ‘universal services obligation fee’ (USOF) to 3% from the current 5%. The reduction in USOF will effectively reduce the licence fee to 6% from 8% currently.―Financial Express

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