The Department of Telecom has given a green signal to Vodafone to merge four of its Indian entities (Vodafone East, Vodafone South, Vodafone Cellular and Vodafone Digilink) into Vodafone Mobile Services (VMS), reports ET. Now the company needs approval of the High Court to amalgamate the entities and complete the process by informing the registrar of companies. Vodafone is also looking to merge Vodafone West and Vodafone Spacetel with Vodafone Services, for which it will need to submit Rs 1,950 crore. The company is looking to launch a public IPO and is working towards it, despite its ongoing Rs 20,000 crore tax dispute. Vodafone India accounts for 10% of Vodafone’s total revenue, and has over 180 million customers. According to the report, the UK based telecom operator has been trying to merge these entities since 2012, before it launches a public IPO in India. Apparently, the company has deposited Rs 2,000 crore as directed by the Supreme Court last month. Vodafone India needed to pay Rs 6,678 crore to the government under various heads to go through with the merger, and included payment for a one time spectrum charge, spectrum usage charge and computation of adjusted gross revenue. The SC had asked Vodafone to deposit this money in order to approve the merger with VMS, a subsidiary of Vodafone India. The government appealed against an interim order of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on spectrum usage charge and other issues, including the merger of Vodafone-related firms. The…
