Ease Pressure On Vodafone Idea, Banks Tell Government

Shares of Vodafone Idea jumped as much as 13 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 8.99 after a report suggested that banks led by the country's largest lender State Bank of India asked the government to give debt-laden Vodafone Idea more time to clear its tax dues and spectrum fees. Banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) have called on the government to give Vodafone Idea more time to clear its tax dues and spectrum fees, news agency Reuters reported citing two bankers and a government official familiar with the matter said.

Last year a court ordered the mobile carrier, a joint venture between Vodafone Group and Idea Cellular, to pay just over $8 billion to the government to settle long-standing dues.

Vodafone has a stake of about 44 per cent in the company and Aditya Birla owns nearly 27 per cent.

In June, Vodafone Idea's then non-executive chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla warned that without a government reprieve the Indian mobile carrier's "financial situation will drive its operations to an irretrievable point of collapse".