Supreme Court asks Vodafone to pay Rs 2,000 crore for merger of licenses

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has asked Vodafone Mobile Services Ltd (VMSL) to pay Rs 2,000 crore to the government in pursuance of the proposed merger of licenses of its four entities into itself.

A bench headed by Justice J S Khehar said the central government would approve the merger as soon as the amount is paid to it by the firm.

The order came on the plea of the government filed against the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) order allowing provisional merger of the licenses of four entities.

Vodafone India plans to merge Vodafone East, Vodafone Cellular, Vodafone South and Vodafone Digilink into VMSL as a precursor to what is expected to be one of the larger initial public offerings (IPO) in India.

Vodafone needed to pay Rs 6,678 crore to the government under various heads for the merger to go through, Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha, appearing for the government, said.

The laws required Vodafone to pay all dues and demands before the merger took place, the ASG said.

The money due include payment of a one-time spectrum charge, the spectrum usage charge and computation of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR).