Vodafone India revenue down over 13% due to price war, GST

Vodafone India SIM cardsVodafone Group’s reported revenue stands at €23.1 billion (- 4.1 percent), during the six months ended 30 September 2017.

Group service revenue is € 20.6 billion (-5.6 percent)

Following the decision to merge Vodafone India with Idea Cellular on 20 March 2017, Vodafone India is excluded from Group figures.

Reported revenue from Indian operations was €2.6 billion or INR 19973 crore (-13.4 percent), of which service revenue accounted for around 99.7 percent.

Organic revenue declined 13.9 percent during first quarter and 17.8 percent during the second quarter.

In India mobile service revenue for the six months stands at € 2.4 billion (INR 18630 crore approx), as compared €2.9 billion (INR 21900 crore approx) in 2016.

Service revenue declined as a result of intense price competition from the new entrant and aggressive incumbent responses, Vodafone said. “Competitive intensity in the market continued to rise throughout the period, with the extension of data validity periods on prepaid top-ups as well as price reductions in the postpaid segment.”

Apart from intensified price competition and seasonal weakness as a result of the monsoon, the impact of the new GST increased the tax burden on the gross revenues to 18% (previously 15%), Vodafone said.

There are signs of positive developments in the Indian market, with consolidation of smaller operators and recent price increases from the new entrant.

Vodafone’s active data customer base stands at 68 million, with strong growth in 4G customers (up 11.9 million to 14.1 million at the end of the period) offsetting the decline in 2G. Total customer base at the end of H1 was 207 million.

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