DoT may issue notice to 5 telcos for under-reporting revenues

Expected to raise a demand of about Rs 823 crore from all the telecom companies

PTI | June 29, 2012



Department of telecom is learnt to be in process of sending demand notice to five private operators for under reporting their revenues in two years.

The department has earlier issued show cause notice to Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular after a special audit revealed under reporting of revenue during assessment years starting from 2006 to 2008.

The department is expected to raise a demand of about Rs 823 crore from all the telecom companies, sources said.

Sources in DoT said RCom may be asked pay around Rs 310 crore, Bharti Airtel Rs 161 crore, Tata Teleservices Rs 179 crore, Vodafone Rs 107 crore and Idea Cellular about Rs 64 crore.

All the five companies declined to comment on the matter.

Telecom regulator Trai in 2009 had asked the DoT to conduct a special audit of financial accounts of these five telecom companies for the 2006-08 period observing that operators were under-reporting their revenues to avoid payment of licence fee to the government through revenue share.

The move was to check operators' scope to arbitrage, which is shifting revenue from higher licence fee to the lower side. The UASL (basic and mobile) telephony has a licence fee of 6-10 per cent where as NLD, ILD, ISP and Internet Protocol has 6 per cent.

Trai had noticed that some of operators were showing more revenue in segment that carried lower licence fee.

The special audit was for those companies which have multiple licences - unified access service licence (UASL), national long distance (NLD), international long distance (ILD) and internet service provider (ISP). All the five companies mentioned above have all these licences.

Comments

 

Other News

A 19th-century pilgrim’s progress

The Travels of a Sadhu in the Himalayas By Jaladhar Sen (Translated by Somdatta Mandal) Speaking Tiger Books, 259 pages, ₹499.00  

India faces critical shortage of skin donors amid rising burn cases

India reports nearly 70 lakh burn injury cases every year, resulting in approximately 1.4 lakh deaths annually. Experts estimate that up to 50% of these lives could be saved with adequate access to skin donations.   A significant concern is that around 70% of burn victims fall wi

Not just politics, let`s discuss policies too

Why public policy matters Most days, India`s loudest debates stop at the ballot box. We can name every major leader and recall every campaign slogan. Still, far fewer of us can explain why a widow`s pension is delayed or how a government school`s budget is actually approved. That

When algorithms decide and children die

The images have not left me, of dead and wounded children being carried in the arms of the medics and relatives to the ambulances and hospitals. On February 28, at the start of Operation Epic Fury, cruise missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh school – officially named a girls’ school, in Minab,

The economics of representation: Why women in power matter

India’s democracy has grown in scale, but not quite in balance. Women today are active participants in elections, influencing outcomes in ways that were not as visible earlier. Yet their presence in legislative institutions continues to lag behind. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was meant to addres

India will be powerful, not aggressive: Bhaiyyaji

India is poised to emerge as a global power but will remain rooted in its civilisational ethos of non-aggression and harmony, former RSS General Secretary Suresh `Bhaiyyaji` Joshi has said.   He was speaking at the launch of “Rashtrabhav,” a book by Ravindra Sathe


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter