Wishesh Magazine November-2019 Wishesh_Magazine_November_2019 | Page 53

Nick Read said “Financially there’s been a heavy burden through unsupportive regulation, excessive taxes and on top of that, we got the negative supreme court decision.” Vodafone got into a joint venture with Aditya Birla groups and Idea Cellularin 2018. There after it became challenging even more. But Vodafone company has the huge number of customers yet. Vodafone further is not committed to make any investments for business in India. If government is not coming up with positive step, the situation will become critical says the CEO. Vodafone currently owns 45% stake in India. The company made a request asking government to remove the license fees, taxes. Also company needs at least two years of delay in spectrum fees. Another airwave auction of 4G and 5G spectrum is scheduled this year. The company is running with total debt of $14 billion and they may not be in position to invest any more money for business in India. It is noticed that the launch of Reliance Jio led to loss for both the companies Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel. The committee of government is assessing the request and yet to come with the updates on the same. The value of it’s stake in joint venture in India will go to zero. The CEO Nick Read clearly mentioned Vodanfone’s existence in India is a doubt unless the governments grants the request. NOVEMBER 2019 | WWW.WISHESH.NET