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Debt-ridden Vodafone Ideaon Thursday said its consolidated loss narrowed to Rs 6,418.9 crore in the quarter ended on March 31, 2023.

The company had recorded a loss of Rs 6,563.1 crore in the same period a year ago.

The consolidated revenue from operations of the company increased by about 3% to Rs 10,531.9 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 10,239.5 crore in March 2022 quarter.

However, Vodafone Idea (VIL) reported widening of loss to Rs 29,297.6 crore for the year ended March 31, 2023.

The company posted a consolidated loss of Rs 28,234.1 crore in the fiscal year 2021-22.

VIL recorded the first-ever annual growth in revenue from operations post-merger. The company’s consolidated revenue from operations grew by 9.5% to Rs 42,177.2 crore from Rs 38,515.5 a year ago.

“We are pleased to report annual revenue growth for the first time post-merger on the back of consistently improving performance for the last several quarters. We continue to see growth in ARPU (average revenue per user) and 4G subscribers,” Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra said in a statement.

The growth in the annual revenue was supported by tariff hikes, improving subscriber mix and 4G subscriber additions, the company said.

VIL’s average revenue per user, a key growth matrix, grew by 9.3% year-over-year to Rs 135 during the reported quarter from Rs 124 a year ago.

The overall subscriber base of the company declined by about 7% to 22.59 crore from 24.38 crore a year ago. However, the 4G subscriber base of VIL grew by 4.5 million to 12.26 crore during the reported quarter from 11.81 crore in March 2022 quarter.

The average data usage per 4G subscriber grew by about 9% to about 15 GB from 13.86 GB in the March 2022 quarter.

The company’s total gross debt (excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due) as of March 31, 2023, dropped to Rs 2,09,260 crore from Rs 2,22,890 crore as of December 31, 2022, due to the conversion of interest dues arising from the deferment of spectrum instalments and AGR dues into equity issued to the government.

Subsequent to the issue of shares to the government, VIL promoter’s holding in the company stands at 50.4% and the government holds a 33.1% stake in the firm.

“We continue to remain engaged with our lenders for further debt fundraising as well as with other parties for equity or equity-linked fundraising, to make required investments for network expansion, including 5G roll-out,” Moondra said.

VIL’s auditor note said that the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on raising additional funds as required, successful negotiations with lenders and vendors for continued support and generation of cash flow from operations that it needs to settle liabilities as they fall due.

The capital expenditure of VIL for the quarter stood at Rs 560 crore, taking the total capex spend for FY23 to Rs 3,360 crore.