New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that the central government does not want any telecom firm to shut down its operations due to financial issues and wanted every company to flourish. "We want no company to shut its operations. We want everyone to flourish," she told reporters here when asked about the stress in the telecommunications sector. The queries were regarding the major telecom firms Vodafone Idea and Airtel which posted a combined quarterly loss of about Rs 75,000 crore as they were hit by statutory dues after a recent Supreme Court ruling.

The minister said that the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) dealing with financial problems faced by telecom firms has not taken any final decision in the matter. Asked if the government was considering the dues coming from telecom firms after the Supreme Court ruling in the case as part of revenue, she said, "I am not hurrying to take any decision on this." After the Supreme Court ordered telecom companies to pay as much as Rs 1.42 lakh crore in past statutory dues, the Centre had set up the CoS under the cabinet secretary to suggest measures to mitigate financial stress in the sector last month.