Vodafone-Idea gets a sigh of relief from Supreme Court

Can corporate situations resemble typical Bollywood movies? Sometimes maybe. You would have seen, especially in the movies of the ’90s, that, when a villain used to do everything he could to kill the hero, and the hero felt completely helpless, he went to a temple and prayed. ‘Upar wale ke ghar me dher hai, andher nahi,’ that’s what the hero used to utter while praying and some miracle happened which used to save his life and keep his family safe from the villain. After being forced to pay the AGR dues, Vodafone-Idea might have found itself in a similar situation.

So, just like the hero who was struggling for his life, he had nowhere to go, so he left it all to God, Vodafone-Idea went to the Supreme Court of India and asked for mercy. The Supreme Court also ruled it in their favor and asked the Income Tax department to refund an amount of Rs. 833 crores. The shares have shown a positive stride since then. More importantly, Vodafone-Idea has probably got some relief, and they might be looking forward to compete with other telecom companies and stay in the game.

What’s Up With Vodafone-Idea?

Actually, the Income Tax department had challenged the order of the High Court, which said that the IT department should refund Rs. 833 crores, in the top court. The Supreme Court heard the case and decided that the Income Tax Department has to refund the amount. So, the petition was dismissed. By the way, this amount that we are talking about is for the assessment year 2014-15. Let’s also tell you that the Bombay High Court first ruled that “Refunds can not be withheld against undetermined future demands.”

Last year and especially the last few months have been really tough for Vodafone-Idea. They were facing a cash crunch along with decreasing revenues, which was because of a shrinking subscriber base. This was accompanied by rumors that Vodafone is going to shut down its business in India. Last month once again, the rumors caught life, but after this order, it seems that they won’t be true. But, the trouble is not over yet for the struggling telco.

Since the arrival of Jio, the telecom company has struggled that most are Vodafone and, of course, Idea. Then they merged to explore the possibility of battling it out together and surviving. But, that has also gone in vain, and even the joint entity is far from gaining something out of the market. However, one company that is still resisting Jio to create a monopoly is Airtel. But, with Jio getting tremendous amounts of investments and global tech giants like Google and Facebook interested in partnering with it, it is difficult to say how long the struggle would last.

When we started from, Vodafone-Idea miraculously got a sigh of relief from the Supreme Court. Now, only if it could hold on and find a way to stay in the game will the telecom industry stay competitive. Although that is much easier said than done. As per the latest development, Vodafone has launched e-Sim for postpaid services. With this, the postpaid connections won’t require a physical sim to operate. So, it’s good to see the company trying to innovate even in such hard times. But, will it be able to clear its AGR dues worth more than Rs. 50,000 crores? We’ll have to wait and watch.

Everything About Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana

How many times is it that when we have thought of taking a loan, we have had to rethink because of the minimum amount involved or the huge amount of collateral or security that had to be deposited?

One solution to these problems is the Mudra (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Loan. You can read on to know more about this loan.

What is Mudra Loan?

On 8th April 2015, the Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) to help various non-farm small/micro enterprises and non-corporate enterprises with their funding needs. The scheme was introduced to extend loans of up to Rs. 10 lakhs to these organizations. These loans are known as MUDRA loans. The loans can be availed from any NBFCs , MFIs, Commercial Banks, Small Finance Banks, and RRBs.