Government relief for telcos, tariff hikes may not offset impact of Supreme Court ruling: Fitch

A two-year moratorium on payment of spectrum dues and hike in mobile call and data tariffs from next month may not be sufficient for Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea to offset the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on payment of past statutory dues, Fitch Ratings said on Friday.

The Supreme Court had on October 24 ruled that non-telecom revenues will be included while calculating statutory dues towards the government.

"The decision by all three private Indian telecommunication companies (Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio) to raise tariffs from December 2019 and a two-year moratorium on payment of spectrum dues (announced by the government this week) are positive for the industry," Fitch said.