Reliance Industries share price closes 2.76% higher after Jio levies IUC charge on subscribers

Reliance Industries share price closed higher today after telecom arm of the Mukesh Ambani-led firm Reliance Jio said it would charge its subscribers for voice calls made to rival networks.

Now, Jio customers will have to pay interconnect usage charge (IUC) of 6 paise per minute for such calls. That's good news for the telco which had been providing voice calls to its subscribers for free till now.

According to estimates of brokerages, average revenue per user (ARPU) for Reliance Jio will rise by Rs 17 following the move which will add to bottom line of the telco.

Reliance Industries share price closed 2.76% or 36.65 points higher at Rs 1,362 compared to the previous close of Rs 1325 on BSE. The large cap stock rose up to 3.19% to Rs 1,368 on BSE. It has gained 4.25 in last three days and is now 4.01% away from its 52 week high of Rs 1,417 on BSE.

It has gained 21.53% since the beginning of this year and risen 23% during the last one year.

"So, for all recharges done by Jio customers starting today, calls made to other mobile operators will be charged at the prevailing IUC rate of 6 paise per minute through IUC top-up vouchers till such time that TRAI moves to zero termination charge regime. Presently, this date is January 1, 2020," Jio said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company claimed that it has paid Rs 13,500 crore to other operators as IUC charges over the past three years. Since it did not charge its customers for voice calls, the company had to bear this entire expense. Jio post-paid connections will also have to pay the 6 paise per minute charge for outgoing calls.