Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Sunita, the moderator of the conference. Welcome to the Indus Towers Limited second quarter ended September thirtieth, twenty twenty-four earnings call. For the duration of the presentation, all participants lines will be in listen-only mode. After the presentation, the question and answer session will be conducted for all participants on this call. In case of a natural disaster, the conference call will be terminated post an announcement. Present with us on the call today is the senior leadership team of Indus Towers. Before I hand over the call, I must remind you that the overview and discussion today may include certain forward-looking statements that must be viewed in conjunction with the risks that we face. I now hand over the call to our first speaker of the day, Mr. Prachur Sah. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Sah.
Thank you, Sunita, and a very warm welcome to all participants. Joining me today are my colleagues, Mr. Vikas Poddar, CFO, Mr. Tejinder Kalra, COO, and Mr. Dheeraj Agarwal, Head of Investor Relations. I am pleased to present our business performance for the quarter ended September thirtieth, twenty twenty-four. We are pleased to report that in line with the trajectory of the previous three quarters, we sustained 100% collection against monthly billing from a major customer, while our collections against past overdues improved further during the quarter. And our tower additions remain strong despite unfavorable weather conditions, such as severe floods and heavy rainfall impacting rollouts. The demand outlook for the next few quarters continues to be strong, and we expect to continue the delivery momentum.
Having said that, it also gives me great pride to see that despite challenging weather conditions, our teams on the ground continue to show remarkable resilience and fortitude to ensure network connectivity. Amidst the devastating landslide and heavy rains in Wayanad, Kerala, our field force set up temporary cell on wheels sites to aid rescue operations by ensuring that communication is not impacted. Similarly, in Tripura, our field force braved the landslides and flash floods triggered by incessant rainfall to continue rolling out sites. We also installed towers in the highest altitude areas of Leh, Kargil, and certain remote locations of Kashmir. The regulatory landscape continues to become more conducive for the swift deployment of telecom infrastructure in the country. This is underpinned by the proactive measures taken by the government, while being cognizant of the sustainability aspect.
With the objective of improving telecom services in rural, remote, and underserved urban areas, the DoT notified the Bharat Nidhi Rules 2024, enabling the Digital Bharat Nidhi Fund to support projects to fulfill the objective. Additionally, the move also aims to enhance telecom security and foster innovation. The department has also notified Right of Way Rules 2024 under Telecommunications Act 2023, which aims to resolve interpretational issues within the industry and ensure efficient deployment of telecommunication infrastructure, among other things. Additionally, the Green Open Access policy introduced last year has now been adopted by more than 21 states. The policy is aimed at incentivizing the use of cleaner sources of energy.
Shifting gears to 5G, the total number of 5G-based transceiver stations, or BTS, deployed now stands at over four hundred and fifty thousand, with India witnessing one of the fastest 5G rollouts in the world. Our loading revenues continue to act as a lever for growth. We expect our loading revenues to be gradually supplemented by a demand for new sites once a certain penetration level is achieved to aid the network densification. Given our enhanced strength as a leading player in the passive infrastructure space, including strong execution capability, we believe that we are well-placed to address this demand. 5G subscriptions have continued to increase both globally and in India, as more and more users migrate from 4G.
As per the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, global 5G subscriptions at the end of June 2024 now stand at over 1.9 billion, with 161 million additions seen during the quarter. On the other hand, 4G subscriptions declined by 25 million in the same period. 5G subscriptions are expected to reach almost 5.6 billion by 2029, accounting for around 60% of the overall mobile subscriptions. As per the latest TRAI report, the total 5G subscription base in India grew to 190 million in Q1 2025, increasing by 31 million. Comparatively, 4G subscriptions saw a decline of 15 million. The swift uptake of 5G in conjunction with the ongoing migration of users from 2G to 4G is providing a boost to data consumption within the country.
For the top three operators, the total data consumption growth at 28% year-on-year for the June quarter as well, above the average of the previous eight quarters. The average data consumed per user per month increased to 26 GB in the same period, growing by 17% year-on-year. Additionally, as per the TRAI, 5G data consumption grew 28% quarter-on-quarter to 11.4 billion GB, and contributed to 20.3% of total data usage in Q1 FY 2025, compared to 16.9% in Q4 FY 2024. The robust data consumption story, coupled with the rapid uptake of 5G, is expected to spur the need for passive infrastructure, and we are confident of leveraging our core strengths to capitalize on this opportunity. Moving to operational performance, our tower and tenancy additions continue to be material despite seasonal disturbances.
In Q2, we added three thousand seven hundred and forty-eight Macro towers and four thousand three hundred and eight corresponding co-locations. Our total M acro towers and co-locations base stood at two hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred and fifty-eight and three hundred and seventy-nine thousand two hundred and thirty-six each, increasing by 12.5% and 7.3% year-on-year, year-on-year respectively. Our tenancy ratio continues to be industry-leading at one point six five. Addition of co-locations on linear towers stood at one eighty-two in quarter two, and the overall base increased to eleven thousand three hundred and sixty co-locations. Including linear towers, our net co-location additions were at four thousand four hundred and nineteen Q2, versus six thousand eight hundred and thirty-two in Q1.
I'll now talk about the progress we have made on our four key strategic pillars, namely market share, cost efficiency, network uptime, and sustainability. On market share, we are pleased to see that the proactive measures we are taking have helped us maintain our share in the business of our major customers. The technological interventions we have been taking across the value chain, along with the strengthening of our partner ecosystem, have contributed to our achievement. We continue to grow our presence in urban areas, underpinned by the capabilities we have built, which help us deploy towers twenty-four seven at speed. These have helped us address challenges specific to urban areas, including minimizing disturbances during deployment.
We have also continued to leverage the government's RoW policy relating to the deployment of sites on lands owned by government bodies, including state municipal corporations and PSUs, in order to increase our reach further. Additionally, our robust internal processes and quality standards have helped us, improving our competitiveness, which is further supplemented by expanding our portfolio to bridge the gap in network footprint. In addition to the rollouts, one of our major customers, we are anticipating incremental tenancies to flow through from other major customers as well in the near term, which we believe will act as a fillip to our growth. We believe the demand for other offerings, including in-building and small cell solutions, will grow as the telecom infrastructure landscape evolves further. In terms of cost efficiency, our initiatives towards reducing our operating and capital expenses continued in Q2 as well.
Our diesel consumption reduced further by 2% in Q2 on a year-on-year basis. The reduction in diesel consumption was lower primarily due to weather disturbances I had alluded to earlier. Our renewable energy portfolio continues to expand, with our solar site count increasing to more than 25,000, and quarterly additions being close to 4,000. The conversion of sites from indoor to outdoor and electrification of non-electrified sites continue to be part of our OpEx strategy. All these actions will help us optimize our energy costs. With regards to CapEx, we are working towards implementing technological solutions at our sites, which would enable remote monitoring of sites on real-time basis and provide requisite data. This, in turn, would help us carry out infrastructure rationalization and resource optimization, resulting in cost efficiencies. Thirdly, network uptime remains the key ask of the customer.
I would like to reiterate that Q2 saw a large number of weather disruptions, with such instances being more than 1.5 times compared to the same period last year. In addition to Kerala and northeastern states, heavy rains and floods were also seen in parts of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Bihar. Despite this, the dedicated efforts of our field teams helped us maintain a pan-India uptime of 99.96%, reaffirming our competitiveness in operating and maintaining such an extensive distributed asset base. Now moving to ESG, a strategic priority for the organization. We are pleased with the headway we have made within each dimension of ESG, underpinned by our consistent efforts.
With regards to the environmental dimension, we continue to maintain a strong focus on reducing our GHG emissions by both reducing our diesel consumption and increasing the contribution of renewable sources to fuel our energy needs. Our solar site additions continue to be robust, with our overall base now standing at over 25,000 sites. During the quarter, we launched our Future Earth program, through which we aim to plant 1 million trees by 2027 in order to create a sizable carbon sink for the country. With a view to ensure sustainable practices across the value chain, we conducted ESG training for more than 80 major partners. In terms of making a diverse and inclusive workforce, our focused hiring programs have led to our gender diversity improving to 14.3% in Q2, compared to 11.2% in Q1.
During the quarter, we also launched our Women Leadership Development Program, Shakti, in collaboration with IIM Indore, to equip our women employees with the requisite skills and behaviors needed to take up leadership roles in the future. Another pleasing aspect was to see our ESG efforts being appreciated, as BW Businessworld recognized Indus Towers as one of the most sustainable companies for 2024 in the infrastructure sector. On the CSR front, we supported flood-affected communities of Andhra Pradesh by distributing over 1,000 relief kits. We are pleased to see our Digital Transformation Van initiative aimed at educating and upskilling disadvantaged individuals, expanding to six states in Q2. A scholarship program for disabled children has now over 600 beneficiaries. During the quarter, the company successfully completed the buyback of 56.8 million shares at a price of INR 465 per share.
Post this, the shareholding of Bharti Airtel in the company increased to more than 50%. I would now request Vikas to take you through our financial performance for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, and I look forward to your questions. Over to you, Vikas. Thank you.
Thank you, Prachur, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to share with you all the financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. We had a robust financial performance in quarter two, aided by meaningful rollouts, wherein we added 4,490 co-locations on our towers, including linear towers. In terms of the financial performance for quarter two, our revenues stood at INR 74.7 billion, growing 4.7% year-on-year, while the core revenues from rental grew by 8.5% year-on-year to INR 47.1 billion. These were driven by co-location additions and loading. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, our reported gross revenue and core revenue from rentals were up by 1.1% and 1.5% respectively.
Moving to profitability, the reported EBITDA increased by 42% year-on-year and 8% quarter-on-quarter to INR 49.1 billion. EBITDA margins increased by 17.3 percentage points year-on-year and 4.2 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 65.7%. Our collections against the past overdue from a major customer have continued in this quarter, and this has resulted in writeback of provision for doubtful debt and aided our profitability for quarter two. Adjusted for overall provision writeback of INR 10.8 billion in quarter two, EBITDA increased by 6.9% year-on-year and 1.2% quarter-on-quarter. Coming to energy performance, we are actively taking steps to cut down on diesel usage and expanding our renewable energy portfolio and addressing the reconciliation challenges that we face. Moving on to the profit after tax.
Reported profit after tax was INR 22.2 billion, increasing 71.8% year-on-year and 15.5% quarter-on-quarter. Adjusted for the provision writeback, the profit after tax was up 13.8% year-on-year and 4.6% quarter-on-quarter. The reported pre-tax return on capital employed and post-tax return on equity for the rolling twelve months were at 22.9% and 29.0% respectively. We generated free cash flow of INR 14.4 billion in quarter two, aided by higher collections and lower CapEx. Trade receivables decreased by -0.9 billion due to better collections. For the last few quarters, we have been collecting a sum against the past overdues from a major customer. We have collected a total of more than INR 23 billion in the last twelve months.
This has resulted in our provision for doubtful debt reducing to about INR 35 billion. We are also in constant discussions for clearance of the remaining overdues, and additionally, as touched upon by Prachur earlier, we are expecting additional tenancies from this customer as it expands its 4G capacity and coverage. In summary, the consistent collections of past overdues from a major customer, in addition to collection of 100% of the monthly billing amount, continue to support our financial performance. On our operational performance, we were able to record a meaningful number of tower and tenancy additions, despite the weather disturbances seen during the quarter. We believe that the network expansion and the 5G rollouts of our customers will continue to act as levers of growth. With this, I would now request the moderator to open the floor for question and answer please. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer interactive session for all the participants who are connected to audio conference service from Airtel. Due to time constraints, we would request if you could limit the number of questions to two to enable more participation. Hence, management will take only two questions per participant to ensure maximum participation. Participants who wish to ask questions may please press star one on their touch-tone enabled telephone keypad. On pressing star one, participants will get a chance to present their questions on first-in-line basis. To ask a question, participants may please press star one now. The first question comes from Mr. Aditya Suresh from SMBC Nikko. Mr. Suresh, you may ask your question now.
Hey, thank you, and good afternoon. I just had one question, actually. So can you help us understand the competitive dynamics, as we speak, in particular, given the consolidation of the number two, number three player? The real question is, I mean, are we seeing any changes, whether it be in the rental terms or migration of tenancies from whether it be Jio or Vodafone, into that consolidated tenancy? Thank you.
Aditya, if I'm understanding the question correctly, you're asking about the consolidation in the towerco side, if it's impacting Indus. To be honest, I think, I mean, we've not seen any such thing. I think we continue to be the driving in tower tenancy growth from our customers. I've not seen any impact as such in terms of any change in the competitive dynamics. I believe it's a reflection of the market from an operator side, which is reflected in the towers consolidation. I don't see any impact on such.
Our focus remains on our own performance, making sure we capture the market share, remain very competitive in terms of deploying in time with the right quality, and delivering a strong operational performance to our customers.
Maybe just as a follow-up, if I could ask, sir, as your network contracts are coming up for renewal, what sort of discounts are we seeing here right now?
So, Aditya, I think, as far as the renewal discounts are concerned, the framework is very consistent. So just as a recap, we had signed the renewal framework in FY 2022, and thereafter, that was the time when we had really a bulk sort of a renewal. Thereafter, there has not been any major lumpy renewal in the last two financial years, but pretty much the framework remains consistent, and the discount levels are also very similar to what we had worked out.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Suresh. The next question comes from Mr. Sanjesh Jain from ICICI Securities, Mumbai. Mr. Jain, you may ask your question now.
Yeah, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I got two of them. First, on the, on the tenancy growth, this is one quarter where probably after many quarters, the tenancy growth is materially higher than the tower growth, which indicates that we are getting some additional tenancy from BSNL and Vodafone. Do you think it can continue in the next few quarters?
Sanjesh, your voice was not very audible. If you don't mind, repeating, please.
Yeah, yeah. Am I audible now?
Yes, very clear.
Yeah. Thank you. So I was telling this is one of those quarters after many quarters where tenancy growth has materially higher than the tower growth, which indicates that we are getting additional tenancies from the VIL and BSNL rollout. This trend is fair to assume will continue for next few quarters?
I would assume so. I think, Sanjesh, as our major customers continue to roll out, I believe this growth will continue. And in fact, if you see over the last one and a half years, because of a strong tower rollout, we will remain the prime candidate to make sure we capture this growth.
Got it. Got it. And incremental rollout of these two telcos who are being aggressively rolling out networks, will we retain our market share, say, 60-70% market share, what we have today in VIL and some amount of incremental tenancy from BSNL? Are we confident about that?
I cannot give you a number, Sanjesh, because it's not. However, as I mentioned earlier, because of the rollouts that we have done, in the last one and a half years, and we have a significant amount of tower rollouts done, we remain in the prime position in terms of our second tenancy and current tenancy being available at the tower. So from an availability point of view, we remain in the prime position, so we will continue to make sure that our operational performance keeps us in the pole position to get the majority market share.
Second question is on the CapEx side. Reliance Jio has already announced their results, and it appears that in first half, their CapEx intensity from last year has halved. And they just also guided of slowing or decelerating CapEx. Do you think the increased growth from the aggressive players historically can materially reduce in next two years?
It's hard to predict, right? I think, you know, of course, I think, the amount of growth we've seen in FY 2024 is not gonna be repeated every year, right? However, if you look from our rollouts that happened this year, they still remain on the higher side than what we've done in the past. When looking at order book, I believe we will continue this momentum.
When you say we continue the momentum, we are referring to tower growth or tenancy growth here?
Uh, both.
Both. That's, that's clear. That's it from my side. Thanks for taking my questions, and best of luck for the coming quarters.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Jain. The next question comes from Mr. Arun Prasath from Avendus Spark. Mr. Prasad, you may ask your question now.
Yeah. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity. The first question is on this tower build number this quarter. Can you just ballpark indicate how much of the deployment reduction is can be attributable to the weather? Is it weather? Is it substantial, or is it due to reduction from the telco activities in the...?
It's very hard to give you a bifurcation of, how much this, how much that each number is split into. But, you can look at the historical, performance in which every year, the quarter two is impacted by the weather conditions. But as I mentioned in the earlier question that Sanjesh asked. I think, the momentum of FY 2024, whether the numbers of FY 2024 may not be repeated every year, but FY 2025 so far, and if you look at the historical performance, we still continue to deploy a significant amount of towers, which are very meaningful. So I can't give you a split on how much is the order book related and how much is the other related. But, I think the tower growth continues, from what I understand.
Right. All right, sir. Fair enough. Secondly, on the, we are already seeing this, colocation additions is picking up speed. But, how much of the loading, in terms of loading activities is the second customer has started. So, is it just started or it will start some color would be helpful?
Yeah. So, again, I can't give you the exact numbers again, Arun, because I don't have it, to be honest, I think. But there are three things. One is the co-location additions, as you mentioned, from the other customers who can come on the tower that we are starting to see. Secondly, the loading, both 4G and 5G, where the conversion from 2G to 4G is happening. I think they have started to materialize, and we expect that momentum to pick up in the coming quarters.
This is even for the large, for your largest customer, this 4G to 5G, that is barely done or is it still, what kind of momentum we can expect on the largest customer as well?
Yes, I think, Arun, from a 5G point of view, I think there was a large rollout that has happened over the last one and a half years. I don't believe it's going to be that speed, but there is going to be, you know, additions of 5G, maybe not at the rate it was being done at last year, but some orders are going to come.
All right. Thank you. Yes. All right.
Thank you very much, Mr. Prasad. Next question on Mr. Kunal Vora from BNP Paribas, Mumbai. Mr. Vora, you may ask your question now.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I have two questions. First is, if you can share your thoughts on the GST notice that you received? What is your stand? What is the industry practice regarding the input tax credit?
Yeah, Kunal, I think the show cause notice that we have received is basically putting a question on the GST credit on passive infrastructure assets, like the diesel generator, AC, battery bank, that we deploy. And I mean, based on our assessment, we believe that, you know, the liability currently is not evolving on the company, and we consider this as remote. I mean, this is an ongoing thing. Just because it's a very large number, we have disclosed it. There are also other matters linked to this, which are currently in the courts. So the matter is a bit of a sub judice matter, but currently it's a disclosure. We really don't see this as a major risk.
Understood. What are the next steps? When do you think this can get resolved?
Like I said, the matter is sub judice. We are waiting for the judgment from the court. So once the judgment is known, thereafter there will be some proceedings. So sometimes these things take time, Kunal.
Understood. Second is, the negative, energy margins. This, the last couple of quarters have been, weaker compared to what we've seen historically. So, how should we project them going forward?
So, Kunal, I mean, again, there are two elements to it. Of course, we have to look at, you know, what is the reconciliation that we have to do with the customers to make sure it becomes reflective, and that is an ongoing process, and that will happen. And typically, in Q1, Q2, in these quarters, which are impacted by heavy rainfall and monsoons, so typically, Q1 and Q2, the energy margin is impacted by the seasonality, which we expect to recover in the Q3 and Q4. But yes, that is something as I mentioned in my, you know, talk earlier as well, that, I mean, that is a constant effort that we are looking at improving operational efficiency, which reduces our energy cost and improves the margin.
So I believe there is a little bit of a timing issue. We should see the margins getting improved, in the later part of the year.
Understood. Third one is, for the new tenancies from Vodafone Idea, do you negotiate at all? I mean, is there any scope for that, especially if competition offers bulk discount, can you respond or you have a rack rate and there is no scope for negotiation?
I think we leave, Kunal, I think, as I said, I mean, our offering is, besides commercial, is, the strong operational performance. I would not like to discuss the commercial aspect here, but I think we remain very competitive, both commercially and operationally, to make sure we get the larger share, for the business.
Understood. And can you share your thoughts on dividend payment in the coming quarters with improved cash collection and lower CapEx?
Yes, Kunal, as you know, as we have always maintained in our previous calls and now as well, we have a very clear dividend policy, which directs us to, you know, distribute the free cash flow. So at the end of the year, the board will take a call in line with the policy.
Yeah. Just to add, Kunal, the free cash that we generated in H1 we've already used that for distributing through the buyback. So, that policy is unchanged, and we will certainly evaluate again at the end of the year based on the collections and the cash flow situation, and we'll take that call, you know, together with the board.
... Sure, thanks. And just one last question: How should we look at the finance cost going forward? The number has increased in the recent quarter.
The finance cost is largely the cost of borrowing, and I don't think there's anything major that has changed there. If you're looking at the net, net finance cost number, then obviously there is a bit of fluctuation in our finance income, which is, you know, driven by the fact that we are trying to collect interest on the overdues as well from one of our customers. So whenever that fluctuates, to that extent, the net finance cost fluctuation is visible. But otherwise, at a gross level, the finance cost is pretty stable.
Yeah, I was referring to the net finance cost, which is elevated now compared to the recent quarter. So the recent quarter, the numbers which you've seen, are they the sustainable numbers, or would they come down?
Well, like I said, I mean, it's very difficult to predict because the net finance cost is also dependent on the finance income, which is nothing but the interest that we collect on the overdues, right? So last year, we managed to collect a large part of interest both in cash as well as via the accounting adjustment that we had explained in the quarter three and the quarter four results. So that effort continues. So as and when we will collect those interest, certainly that will reflect in the finance cost. So I don't think we can really you know, sort of, peg the current finance cost for the next couple of quarters.
That's it. That's it for me. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Kunal.
Thank you very much, Mr. Vora. Participants, who wish to ask questions, may please press star one. The next call comes from Mr. Sachin Salgaonkar from BofA Mumbai. Mr. Salgaonkar, you may ask your question now.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is just wanted to understand a bit, that, you, in one of your earlier comments did mention about loading increasing from 4G to 5G. But when I look at the reported average rent per tenant, or to that matter, even the normalized one, it's actually not showing a meaningful increase. So I presume there are other factors which is leading this entire loading not get fully reflected into the numbers. Can you throw some color on that?
So, Sachin, sure. So I think you must be referring to the ARPT, the average revenue per tenancy, which is showing a very stable sort of a number for the last few quarters. Now, as you explained earlier, the ARPT is basically a function of a couple of factors. There are factors that really pull up the ARPT, and there are factors that drag it down. So, in terms of the loading from 4G to 5G, certainly that basically helps the ARPT. What also helps the ARPT is the annual escalation. But apart from this, what has been dragging down the ARPT is the mix, because like we have explained earlier, the new towers that we are doing are basically low CapEx, and the ARPT relating to those new towers are also lower than the legacy portfolio.
So to that extent, there is a bit of a drag. And then, of course, there is a renewal discount, not very significant, in terms of the portfolio, but there is a drag coming from there also. So overall, with the upsides and the downsides together, we are looking at a very stable situation. But large part of the offset that's happening in the loading is the mix.
Thanks, Vikas. Very clear. But is it fair to say that, you know, whenever we see the second anchor customer coming and using a lot of towers as a second tenant, we should see an increase in ARPT, right? Because that will come-
ARPT is a revenue per tenancy. So, obviously, with additional tenant coming in, the average revenue per tower will increase, but per tenancy should be stable or slightly declining because the new tenant may not come with the same load.
Yeah, okay, from a loading perspective. Okay, fair point. That is very clear. Second question, is Voda Idea recently concluded a INR 3.6 billion deal with multiple vendors. Is it fair to assume that there's not much of a contribution from that deal coming to the numbers, and in subsequent quarters, we should see that flowing through? And any timeline you could give from that perspective?
I believe you're talking about the deal we have done for the active equipment. So as the-
Correct.
As the active equipment comes on board, I think that's when the tenancy would start showing up.
Yeah. Sachin, so obviously, there's a time lag between when they close the deal and when they start getting the equipment for rollout. So for this current quarter, obviously, there's none. We see this coming towards the mid to end quarter, is what indications we get from the customer. So hopefully, this quarter will see some things rolling out.
Okay. And my last question is, has anything changed for you, from a Vodafone Idea perspective after the recent AGR verdict? And I'm asking that because there was this one school of thought that whenever Idea finishes its debt raise, they may look to give a lump sum amount, in terms of, whatever payables is remaining. Does that change, or should we expect a quarterly INR 7-8 billion kind of a payment, what we see every quarter?
Sachin, I can't give you the look ahead, and I think as I informed earlier in the calls as well, and now as well, I think we have started receiving our overdues payments, and I think we remain engaged with the customer to get the overdues paid as fast as possible. So I think from our perspective, the timeline has to be as quick as possible, but we're working with the customer to make sure we get the overdues unwound.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Mr. Vivekanand Subbaraman, from Ambit Private Limited, Mumbai. Mr. Subbaraman, your application now?
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Further to an earlier participant's query on the show cause notice that you received, I also note that your contingent liabilities recorded in FY 2024, they include some income tax claims, again, connected to the treatment of of network equipment, passive infrastructure assets. I just wanted to understand, I know this matter is sub judice, the one that you've recorded in Note 3, but does this verdict have any bearing on the way the income tax liability for which you've recorded 41 billion rupees contingent claim? Or does that have any ramification on the income tax case? Thank you. That's question one.
Okay, if I may just take this question, Vivekanand. I think, the show cause notice that we have disclosed is with regard to GST. So it's a different matter. The contingent liability for direct tax or income tax that you're referring to is a legacy matter that has been going on for a long time, and that's basically, you know, goes back to almost two thousand and ten, eleven, twelve. So that matter is also at various levels of jurisdiction. So I think, you know, because we believe those matters are, you know, probably, not, you know, based on the merits of the case, not a high risk, and that's basically being disclosed as contingent liability. So these, these two are very different.
Have I understood the question right, and does that mean that-
Yes, I was just wondering if they are linked or are they very different?
They are very different, yeah.
Okay. So you are confirming that if, even if there is an adverse verdict in respect to the AGR claims for which you received the show cause notice, doesn't rub the income tax liability the wrong way? I mean, it doesn't mean that you will automatically inherit the income tax liability, right?
No, no, no. These are very different matters, Vivekanand. We can maybe discuss offline. I can maybe share more details if you want, but these are very different matters.
Sure. That's very clear. Thank you. The second question is, as far as your maintenance CapEx expenditure is concerned, is there any lumpiness in this regard as well? Because when I look at the maintenance CapEx trajectory, I mean, when the merger had happened, it was around INR 600-700 crore. Now it has more than doubled in the last four years. So does this mean that the maintenance CapEx levels will remain elevated because the network has become bigger? Or how to think about the maintenance CapEx aspect?
So I think, Vivekanand, I'm not sure how you split the maintenance CapEx there. But see, before the merger, the tower count was what it was, and after the merger, the tower count has increased substantially. So I don't think there's any lumpiness as far as maintenance CapEx is concerned. It's a very standard, you know, practice that is followed in terms of how the equipment is replaced or refurbished. So I don't think there is any lumpiness or on maintenance CapEx.
Okay. I'm calculating maintenance CapEx as the overall CapEx minus growth CapEx. I do understand that the number of towers have gone up, but even otherwise, the maintenance CapEx per tower or maintenance CapEx per tenant, that has moved up. That is why I was asking this question.
So I, I think, just to sort of add some color to this, I mean, that... Probably maintenance CapEx should not be looked at in that manner, because, you know, if you are simply looking at CapEx, minus growth, by the way, we are reporting maintenance CapEx as a separate line in our investors pack, and that shows pretty sort of stable numbers quarter on quarter, if you look at those numbers, in case you have the pack in front of you. In September 2024, we have spent INR 2.9 billion, and before that was INR 2.6 billion, and before that was INR 3.4 billion, and so on. So it is a stable number, quarter on quarter.
Now, coming to the lumpiness part of it, I think, while you could see some quarterly fluctuations, but from an overall year perspective, annual perspective, it's pretty stable, consistent, year on year.
Okay, fair enough. Thanks, thanks. I will seek more clarity if needed on the legal cases. Thank you.
Thanks very much, Mr. Subbaraman. Participants who wish to ask questions may please start. At this moment, there are no further questions from participants. I would now hand over the call proceedings to Mr. Prachur Shah for the final remarks.
Thank you, Sunita. To sum up, the progress we are making on each of our strategic priorities furthers our competitiveness and reaffirms India as a leading player. Our strong financial performance is underpinned by continuous rollouts, also supplemented by collections of past overdues from a major customer. We expect the ongoing rollouts of a major customer, coupled with the start of rollouts and 5G building by the other major customer, to continue to drive our near to medium-term growth. Keeping sustainability at the core, we believe that we remain well positioned to capitalize on the growth opportunities on offer. I thank you all for joining the call and wish you all of you a very happy Diwali. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for connecting to audio conference service from Airtel, and have a pleasant day ahead.