Businessman Mukesh Ambani’s telecom company Reliance Jio on Tuesday announced it would increase tariffs in the next few weeks, following the steps of its rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
“Like other operators, we will also work with the government and comply with the regulatory regime to strengthen the industry to benefit Indian consumers and take measures including appropriate increase in tariffs in next few weeks in a manner that does not adversely impact data consumption or growth in digital adoption and sustains investments,” Jio said in a statement.
The company, citing media reports, said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India was likely to initiate a consultation process for the tariff revisions.
Vodafone and Airtel had said on Monday that from next month they would hike tariffs following last week’s historic quarterly losses. Vodafone Idea declared a loss of Rs 50,922 crore in the second quarter of the current financial year while Bharti Airtel lost Rs 23,045 crore. The shares of the two companies surged on Tuesday after they announced tariff increases.
The firms posted huge quarterly losses because of an adverse Supreme Court judgement last month that upheld the Centre’s broader definition of revenue. The government calculates levies on telecom operators on the basis of this definition. In its order, the top court excluded revenue from non-core telecom operations such as rent, dividend and interest income in the reporting of financial results. The court rejected the definition of adjusted gross revenue proposed by telecom operators.
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