NEW DELHI: Apex telecom industry lobby COAI on Wednesday wrote to Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash seeking the urgent payment of state-run firms' unpaid dues to telecom vendors. According to the letter, these public sector firms (PSU) currently owe as much as Rs 20,000 crore for services tendered by telecom sector vendors.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) represents top telecom and network equipment manufacturers and service providers like Nokia, Huawei, Ericsson, ZTE, Sterlite, Indus, Cisco, Juniper, Qualcomm, Apple, Ciena, ECI, Facebook, Google, Amazon and ACT.
"Most of our member companies in the Telecom & Network Equipment Manufacturers and Infrastructure Providers segment have been long-term partners of various PSUs including BSNL, MTNL etc. and have been providing respective material, support and services to these PSUs for all their telecom requirements," COAI director general Rajan Mathews wrote.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a severe disruption of global supply chains and impacted cash flows, Mathews added that these vendors have nevertheless supported "various PSUs in delivering un-interrupted services, despite non-payment of their huge pending dues".
"However, the situation has become highly critical now with total outstanding dues from these PSUs amounting to approximately Rs 20,000 crore, which has been pending since long… this huge scale of delays and breach of contract commitments by Public Sector Units is highly detrimental to global business sentiment towards India," Mathews said, requesting the telecom secretary's "urgent intervention" to ensure the release of these dues to all vendors in the sector.