Telecom minister may meet promoters of mobile companies on 22-23 June

The meeting will take place after inter-ministerial group finishes its meetings with telcos

Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha is likely to meet promoters of service providers on June 22-23 to take stock of the current crisis in the sector.

"Telecom minister has called for a meeting of promoters on June 22 and 23, 2017," an industry source told PTI.

The meeting will take place after inter-ministerial group finishes its meetings with telecom operators by June 17.

According to sources, the inter-ministerial group (IMG), created to work on resolving financial woes of the telecom sector, has called Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Aircel and Sistema Shyam Teleservices for a meeting on June 12.

The major players -- Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Idea -- have been asked for a meeting on June 15 by the panel.

The panel has asked telecom firms to provide their total annual revenue, operational expenses, net profit, market share, return on investments, return of capital deployed, debt liability from both domestic and foreign lenders, spectrum liability, equity infusion etc for financial years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 before June 12.

As per industry estimates, total debt for the sector is at around Rs 4.5 lakh crore, while revenues are around half of this. RCom has not been able to pay its lenders and has seven months to make repayments. Vodafone and Idea Cellular have entered into agreement to merge their businesses in India due to low margin and highly competitive environment.