The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has expressed dissatisfaction with the replies given by Hutchison Essar, its Hong Kong-based parent Hutchison Telecom International
As per TRAI norms, Vodafone and Airtel are close to getting added spectrums, given their growing subscriber rates.
The Ruias of the Essar Group will now be getting around $750 million (about Rs 3,493 crore) more from their telecom joint venture partner, Vodafone Group, over and above the fair market price if they exercise the "put" option for their 33.02 per cent stake.
According to the agreement with the government, the operator can ask 10-year extension if the request is made during the 19th year.
INX Media, the company set up by Indrani Mukherjea, wife of ex-Star Group CEO Peter Mukherjea, has roped in three top advertisers -- Vodafone, Reliance Industries and Future Group -- for their Hindi entertainment channel 9X. Each of these advertisers are believed to be paying Rs 35-40 crore (Rs 350-400 million) for a three-year contract. The television broadcaster has formed Club INX, which will include corporates keen to advertise on the channel.
Vodafone on said it is seeking legal advice to challenge the Bombay High Court order that dismissed its plea against the I-T department's Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) demand in tax and penalty on the company's acquisition of Hutchison Telecom in a deal of about Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion).
The Bombay High Court on Thursday deferred till August 2 the hearing on an appeal filed by Vodafone International challenging income tax department's decision to levy tax on the company for acquiring stake of Hutchison International in Hutchison-Essar in a $11.1 billion deal in February 2007.
In what may provide some relief to Vodafone in its tax case with the government, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said tax officers won't be rash on the company. He said a decision on sending tax notice to the British telecom major would be taken after getting Shome panel's report on retrospective amendment to the Income Tax Act with regard to indirect transfer of Indian assets.
The admission comes as it seeks to ensure approval of the deal by Indian regulators under restrictive foreign investment laws.
After the enactment of retrospective amendments to the Income Tax Act next month, the government may ask Vodafone to pay in excess of Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) -- more than two and half times the tax amount the telecom major was "advised to withhold" on its $11-billion deal with Hutchison in 2007.
Besides Vodafone, several other major MNCs like Nokia and Shell were locked in tax dispute with the revenue department.
Vodafone can mitigate risks of money-laundering through M-Pesa by making sure the funds are being traced.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio is India's strongest telecom brand in India, ahead of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd, according to brand intelligence and data insights company TRA. TRA, formerly Trust Research Advisory, in its 'India's Most Desired Brands 2022' ranked companies according to their brand strength. Reliance Jio topped the telecom category, followed by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea Ltd and BSNL.
While some are relatively new in this business, Vodafone, which has 1.8 million touch points in the country, has been offering basic banking and payment services through its pre-paid mobile digital semi-closed wallet called M-Pesa since 2012.
The police had filed charges in December against Bharti Airtel and Vodafone's India unit.
In a first of its kind initiative and available only in Kolkata, mobile services provider Vodafone Essar, has launched the 'Sambhav' prepaid card, targeted at customers with hearing and speech disability.Available at Rs 151, the prepaid Sambhav card will enable the hearing impaired to communicate effectively using a cellphone. The card enables customers with hearing and speech disability to use mobile phones primarily for sending SMSes.
The move by three major telecom service providers - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular - to set up a consortium for passive infrastructure is gaining ground, but independent telecom infrastructure providers are yet to be convinced.
The letter was also forwarded to Mukherjee, Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Commerce and Industry Ministry Anand Sharma.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed Vodafone Essar Mobile Services to refund value-added service (VAS) charges that were levied without "explicit consent". However, the regulator did not specify the amount the GSM major has to refund to the consumers.
Setting an ambitious target of 100 million cellular subscribers, leading private GSM operator Vodafone-Essar today announced an investment of $6 billion (about Rs 24,000 crore) in the next three years.
Vodafone Idea's (Vi's) search for a lifeline has turned longer and tougher even as it continues to lose customers and delay vendor payments. Vi's much-needed Rs 1,600-crore fundraising plan got stuck due to the government's silence on picking up a proposed 33 per cent equity in the financially stressed telco. The development spells further trouble for the company, which has an overall debt pile of Rs 2.2 trillion, including hefty dues to the government.
Interview with MD and CEO, Vodafone India.
Vodafone's revenues for the third quarter have gone up by 16%, thanks to good performance in emerging markets including India.
Besiktas fans threw thousands of stuffed toys onto the pitch during Sunday's match against Antalyaspor to donate to children impacted by the earthquake in Turkey and neighbouring Syria.
The British teleco is bidding hard for cellular operator Hutchison Essar. At stake: the world's fastest growing mobile market-and Vodafone's reputation.
The trio has been voicing their criticism of Trai's recommendations and have asked the government to dump the report, which according to them are 'retrograde' and 'absurd'.
Vodafone India, the nation's second-biggest telecom firm, is planning to invest Rs 7,100 crore in the next 2-3 years, mainly on rolling out 3G networks.
Vodafone, which is offering the iconic Apple iPhone in India along with Airtel, has tied up with Axis Bank and Barclays to offer the phone on six or 12 equated monthly installments (EMIs) for customers who may find the Rs 31,000 to Rs 36,000 price tag too steep.
If he bets big, billionaire Mukesh Ambani will emerge from this week's airwave auction armed with spectrum that could make his Reliance Industries Ltd a formidable rival to market leaders Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Group.
The social impact of this could be worse as 300 million subscribers may face the annoyance of network shutdown and churn.
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin on Wednesday discussions with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who asked the UK telecom giant to follow best commercial practices in its bid to acquire Hutch-Essar.
A name change is quite a tedious thing. And nearly all companies undertake the same exercise to go all out to assure their customers of the same fact -- that nothing has changed, except the name. So amongst the plethora of work all making the same declaration, it is quite difficult to be memorable.
In a report, JP Morgan said Vodafone needed to raise exposure to high-growth emerging markets and offset prospective fall in EBITDA in Europe.
"Smiling tiger may look friendly but is very dangerous." That is how an US Senate Committee Chairman, Senator Fred Thompson said about China Resource Enterprise (CRE). In its investigation into China's attempts to influence the 1996 US presidential campaign, the Committee identified CRE as a conduit for "espionage - economic, political and military for China." Incidentally CRE is owned by the Chinese army, the PLA.
With Lok Sabha approving the Finance Bill that amends law to retrospectively tax cross-border transactions dating back to April 1, 1962, Vodafone faces a tax demand of Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) plus interest and a penalty on its 2007 acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd's Indian operations.
The simple, innocent and funny acts of the alien-like white, egg-headed creatures with balloon bodies created a phenomenon in the Indian advertising industry.
Denial of interconnection "appears to be with ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti consumer", Trai said.
Recently, the government had appointed former Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti as arbitrator in the tax dispute case.
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