Reliance Jio sends new letter to telecom minister, says COAI only serving interests of Airtel, Vodafone Idea

The COAI is only serving the interests of its rivals Airtel and Vodafone Idea, said Reliance Jio. The telecom giant made the allegations in a letter sent to the minister of telecommunications Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday. Reliance Jio alleged that by continuing its partisan behaviour and by not taking into account its views the association is going against the judgment made by the Supreme Court on AGR . Further, the letter claimed that since the judgement has already been made regarding the matter by the apex court, the government does not have the option of going against the court in order to provide the relief that was requested by the association. [caption id=“attachment_7580831” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] “Interest and penalty were being levied strictly as per the contract between the parties and that any reduction, modification or alteration of the interest and penalty provisions contained in the license agreement would amount to impermissibly rewriting the agreement,” argued the letter. The Friday letter comes days after the telecom giant sent a letter on Thursday to the minister refuting COAI’s stance that the telecom industry would collapse without any support from the government. Further, the company added that its competitors could take care of all its financial obligations to the government by selling existing assets and issuing fresh equity. The two strongly worded letters to the minister come as part of the rising tensions between Reliance and COAI . Earlier, the association had written to the government detailing troubles faced by the telecom sector and asked the centre to provide a complete waiver of statutory dues that its other members such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea owe to the government following the Supreme Court ruling. Reliance Jio had, in turn, reacted to this development by hitting out at the industry body for not taking its views into account. In a letter to COAI director general Rajan S Mathew, the former alleged that its letter did not represent the view of the industry and that the association was exploiting legitimate payout obligations to create an “alarmist propaganda for the doom of the telecom industry”. (Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost)