The Aditya Birla Group has said that it will not make new investment in telecom company Vodafone Idea and may let it go insolvent if government does not give relief on the liability of more than Rs 39,000 crore on adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

This information has been given to ET by top executives of the company who are aware of the matter. A senior executive of the Birla Group said, "Telecom is a source of revenue for everyone except business market players. This will not last long. This will lead to a decline in the profitability of the group. May have to consider better utilization of your capital."

This is the first time that the Aditya Birla Group officials have made a public statement on the option of declaring the company insolvent after the Supreme Court's decision on AGR only last month.

A group official said that we agree with Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read's Tuesday statement. "If you don't get the remedies being suggested, the situation is critical," Read said after Vodafone Group's quarterly results on Tuesday. "If you're not a going concern, you're moving into a liquidation scenario - can't get any clearer than that."

Read also said that if the government could not get any relief, then the future of his joint venture in India could be questioned. He had said that the global telecom company would not be able to invest any more money in this venture. The Vodafone CEO withdrew some of his comments on Wednesday. He wrote a letter to the government apologizing and said that his statement was distorted.

He thanked the government for forming a committee of secretaries to prepare a relief package for the troubled telecom sector. Reed took this step when the government was unhappy with the company for his comments. On Wednesday, the stock of Vodafone Idea was down 7.5% at Rs 3.70 on the BSE. Economic Times could not get an answer to the queries asked by the Aditya Birla Group spokesperson till the time of writing the news. The Supreme Court's decision to allow non-core items to be included in the definition of AGR has increased the additional burden of Rs 28,000 crore on it.

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