Finance minister Nirmala Sitharman on Friday reacted to reports of stress in the telecom sector and said "We want no company to shut their operations. We want everyone to flourish."

Two major telecom companies — Vodafone India and Airtel — have posted a combined quarterly loss of about Rs 74,000 crore as they were hit by statutory dues after the recent Supreme Court ruling on AGR.

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Relief for telecom likely as government mulls minimum price for calls, data

The minister further said the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) appointed to deal with financial problems being faced by telecom companies, "has not taken a final decision yet"

Days after the Supreme Court ordered telecom companies to pay as much as Rs 1.42 lakh crore in past statutory dues, the government had set up the CoS under the Cabinet Secretary to suggest measures to mitigate financial stress in the sector last month.

In a move that could launch the revival, the committee of secretaries (CoS) is mulling setting a minimum price for mobile calls and data, sources told CNBC-TV18.

Sources have confirmed the committee has sought recommendations from Department of Telecom (DoT) on setting a minimum charge for all tariffs for telecom players and also assessing the impact it will have on telecom operators.

(With PTI inputs)

First Published:Nov 15, 2019 9:57 PM IST