Jio’s 0.46x net leverage excludes Rs 1,04,573.7 crore DoT dues

Jio reported net leverage of 0.46x at June 30, 2026, but the measure excludes Rs 1,04,573.7 crore of deferred payment liabilities payable to the Department of Telecommunications, or DoT. The excluded amount exceeded Jio’s Rs 61,372.2 crore of reported borrowings, while net leverage used Rs 9,539.1 crore of net debt and quarterly EBITDA of Rs 20,864.5 crore.

Why does Jio’s 0.46x net leverage exclude DoT liabilities?

Jio’s 0.46x net leverage excludes DoT deferred payments because its stated net-debt definition includes only current and non-current borrowings less cash and marketable securities. At June 30, 2026, Jio reported Rs 61,372.2 crore of total borrowings and Rs 51,833.1 crore of cash and marketable securities, resulting in reported net debt of Rs 9,539.1 crore. Dividing that net debt by Rs 20,864.5 crore of EBITDA for the three months ended June 30, 2026 produced the disclosed 0.46x ratio.

The footnote to Jio’s net-leverage table explicitly says that deferred payment liabilities payable to DoT are not included. It gives the excluded amount as Rs 1,04,573.7 crore at June 30, 2026, compared with Rs 1,09,445.9 crore at June 30, 2025 and Rs 1,18,473.7 crore at March 31, 2024. The reported ratio therefore measures borrowings after liquid financial assets, rather than all disclosed deferred payment obligations.

Jio classifies net debt and net leverage as non-GAAP measures, meaning measures that are not required by, or presented under, Indian Accounting Standards, or Ind AS. Jio says these measures are supplemental, not standardised between companies and should not be considered in isolation or as alternatives to Ind AS measures of profit, cash flow or liquidity. The 0.46x ratio for the three months ended June 30, 2026 is also not annualised.

How large are Jio’s excluded DoT payments against borrowings?

Jio’s excluded DoT payment liability was larger than every borrowing balance used in its June 30, 2026 net-debt calculation. The Rs 1,04,573.7 crore footnote amount was Rs 43,201.5 crore higher than total borrowings of Rs 61,372.2 crore, and Rs 52,740.6 crore higher than cash and marketable securities of Rs 51,833.1 crore. Cash and marketable securities are deducted from borrowings in Jio’s reported net debt.

Jio’s reported net leverage fell to 0.46x at June 30, 2026 from 2.15x at June 30, 2025. The change reflected lower reported net debt of Rs 9,539.1 crore versus Rs 39,036.4 crore and higher quarterly EBITDA of Rs 20,864.5 crore versus Rs 18,135.1 crore. Both periods use Jio’s borrowing-based definition, which excludes the respective DoT deferred-payment amounts.

When are Jio’s deferred DoT payments contractually due?

Jio’s contractual-obligations table shows that most of its deferred payment liability was due after five years. Of the Rs 1,04,513.7 crore contractual deferred payment liability at June 30, 2026, Rs 77,700.1 crore was due above five years, Rs 11,354.8 crore was due in three to five years, and Rs 10,496.8 crore was due in one to three years. The maturity schedule indicates that the disclosed obligation is primarily long dated, although it remains a contractual payment commitment.

Within one year, the same table lists Rs 2,638 crore due below three months and Rs 2,324 crore due in six to 12 months, with no amount in the three-to-six-month category. Jio reported total contractual obligations due in less than one year of Rs 23,916.8 crore at June 30, 2026. It also reported Rs 19,026.8 crore of cash and cash equivalents and Rs 32,806.3 crore of current investments on that date.

Jio paid Rs 4,736 crore of deferred payment liabilities in Fiscal 2026, compared with Rs 4,574 crore in Fiscal 2025 and Rs 4,422.9 crore in Fiscal 2024. The deferred-payment balance in the return-on-average-capital-employed table was Rs 1,04,513.7 crore at March 31, 2026, unchanged from the figure shown at June 30, 2026 in that table. The pace of future reduction depends on scheduled payments and any later disclosed additions to deferred payment liabilities.

How does Jio treat deferred payments in its other capital measures?

Jio includes deferred payment liabilities in capital employed for return on average capital employed, or RoCE, unlike in its net-leverage definition. Jio defines capital employed as total equity, total borrowings, deferred payment liabilities, creditors for capital expenditure and net deferred-tax liabilities, less cash and marketable securities and specified assets under development. Its June 30, 2026 RoCE calculation included Rs 1,04,513.7 crore of deferred payments and reported capital employed of Rs 4,79,182 crore.

RoCE was 2.56% for the three months ended June 30, 2026, compared with 3.01% for the three months ended June 30, 2025; neither quarterly measure is annualised. For full-year periods, RoCE was 10.76% in Fiscal 2026, compared with 12.50% in Fiscal 2025 and 12.83% in Fiscal 2024. This separate methodology means RoCE incorporates deferred payments in its capital base, while net leverage does not include them in net debt.

Jio’s net debt to net worth ratio similarly uses the narrower net-debt measure. At June 30, 2026, it was 2.79%, calculated from Rs 9,539.1 crore of reported net debt and Rs 3,41,778.5 crore of net worth. Because that ratio uses the same borrowing-less-cash definition, it also does not measure the full deferred DoT payment liability.

What could change Jio’s reported net leverage next?

Jio states that it intends to repay Rs 27,500 crore of debt from the proceeds of the issue. If executed, that plan would affect the borrowings component of reported net debt, while the disclosed plan does not state that issue proceeds will settle deferred DoT payment liabilities. Jio also says expected operating cash flow and borrowings, after giving effect to issue proceeds, should meet present requirements and anticipated capital-expenditure and working-capital needs for the next 12 months.

Cash generation and investment spending will also affect the cash and marketable securities deducted from borrowings. Jio generated net operating cash flow of Rs 77,556.3 crore in Fiscal 2026, up from Rs 68,157.7 crore in Fiscal 2025, while cash capital expenditure declined to Rs 34,184.3 crore from Rs 44,268 crore. For the three months ended June 30, 2026, Jio generated Rs 23,445.9 crore from operations, used Rs 9,822.3 crore in investing activities and used Rs 11,153.8 crore in financing activities.

Conclusion

Jio’s 0.46x net leverage is a borrowing-based metric that subtracts Rs 51,833.1 crore of cash and marketable securities from Rs 61,372.2 crore of borrowings. It excludes deferred DoT payment liabilities, which the net-leverage footnote reports at Rs 1,04,573.7 crore, even though Jio includes deferred payments in its capital-employed calculation.

The next disclosures to watch are execution of Jio’s stated Rs 27,500 crore debt-repayment plan, changes in operating cash flow and capital expenditure, and scheduled deferred payments. Jio’s June 30, 2026 contractual table reports Rs 77,700.1 crore of deferred payment liabilities due after five years, while its net-leverage footnote reports a Rs 60 crore higher deferred-liability amount that is not reconciled in the supplied material.