The Shares of Vodafone-Idea (VI) tanked 10 percent on Tuesday to hit a fresh 52-week low of Rs 7.17 on BSE after Kumar Mangalam Birla said he is ready to "hand over stake" in the company to a government entity.

Share Market Live

NSE

Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla in a letter to Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba offered his ownership in cash-strapped telecom company to the Public Sector Unit (PSU), a government entity or any domestic financial entity, or any other entity that government may consider worthy of keeping the company as a going concern. The letter was delivered in June.

"It is with a sense of duty towards the 27 crore Indians connected by VIL, I am more than willing to hand over my stake in the company to any entity -- public sector/government/domestic financial entity, or any other than the government may consider worthy of keeping the company as a going concern," Birla wrote in the letter.

Birla had also stated that VI’s operations will be at an "irretrievable point of collapse" if it did not receive immediate and active support from the government.

VI has been trying to raise Rs 25,000 crore to sustain its operations and pay regulatory and governmental dues. The company has been in focus after the Supreme Court of India rejected Bharti Airtel and its claim of arithmetic errors in the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

VI is expected to pay Rs 58,254 crore and it has already paid Rs 7,854 crores. According to self-assessment, the telco claims to owe only Rs 21,533 to the government. Which is why, the company is in the process of filing a review petition with the SC, sources have informed CNBC-TV18.

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Aug 3, 2021 3:37 PM IST