Telecom major Reliance Jio’s expenditure on dealer commissions and promotional activities in FY24 was notably the lowest among India’s three private telecom operators, according to experts analyzing the latest annual reports of the telecom companies, the Economic Times has reported.

A report by Jefferies, seen by the Economic Times, highlighted that Jio’s dealer commissions were just 3 percent of its FY24 sales, lower than Bharti Airtel’s 4 percent and VodafoneIdea’s 8.4 percent.

Analysts pointed out that Airtel, led by Sunil Mittal, continued to invest heavily in promotional activities to acquire high-value customers and maintain its leadership in ARPU. On the other hand, Vodafone Idea  spent heavily to retain its 4G users, who are at risk of switching to Jio or Airtel, who have already launched 5G services nationwide.

According to analysts, quoted in the ET report, Jio‘s lower payouts towards dealer commissions can be attributed to its strategic use of Reliance Retail’s infrastructure, in-house advertising through group media companies, and more streamlined marketing efforts. This synergy allowed Jio to keep costs lower while maintaining strong customer growth.

Jefferies’ calculations show that Jio’s dealer commission payouts amounted to Rs. 3,000 crore in FY24. In contrast, Airtel and Vi’s payouts were higher at around Rs. 6,000 crore and Rs. 3,583 crore, respectively.

The growth in Airtel’s dealer commission payouts also led to a 13 percent year-on-year increase in its overall sales and marketing expenses, which reached Rs. 8,133 crore in FY24, according to CLSA.