Red tape impedes doing business in India: Vodafone

World's second-largest telecom firmVodafone, which is facing taxation issues in India, Thursday said it isdifficult for foreign companies to do business in the country because of slowergovernment clearances.

Vodafone India head Marten Pieters said the company hadsought government's approval in December last year to bring in funds from theparent company to buy airwaves but the clearance is still awaited.

"Yes, it is difficult to do business in India, that'sthe general perception I think of foreign companies and that is not just intelecom," he said speaking at Economist India Summit in New Delhi.

The British telecom firm is facing a tax liability of overRs 11,200 crore, along with interest, on its 2007 acquisition of HonkKong-based Hutchison Whampoa's stake in India's telecom major, Hutchison Essar.

He, however, added that the process for doing business inIndia "can be made much easier, much smoother by just removing a fewthings."

On spectrum auctions due in February 2015 and raising equityfor it, Pieters said: "I have no answer, I got to know last week that theofficer dealing with the file has retired."

Telecom industry in India is in a mess and it is aresult of thinking that more the competition the better it is, Pieters saidThursday.

He also said industry structure is a governmentresponsibility and he has seen "very little action" to change thissystem.

"The telecom industry, if you look at it frominternational perspective is a mess in India ... and it seems to come from thisconcept which has been developed in the past that the more competition, thebetter," Pieters said.

"The industry structure is a problem of the government becausespectrum, which is our raw material is in a limited form available and if youget too many players, then you get this problem where nobody has enoughspectrum," he said.