Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance among telecom companies given notice for under reporting revenue: Government

Government has issued show cause notices to leading telecom companies--Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices-- for under reporting their revenue while companies have refuted the charges, the Parliament was informed today.

"During scrutiny of the documents submitted by licensees (telecom operators), Department of Telecom has noticed that the records submitted by some private telecom companies give indication of under reporting of revenues," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in Lok Sabha.

Show cause notices were issued to the companies in whose books the DoT observed that revenues were under reported, he added. The list shared by the Minister showed two notices were issued to Dishnet Wireless (now Aircel) on April 9, one each to Aircel on March 27, Idea Cellular on March 20, Vodafone on March 25, Tata Teleservices on March 20, Bharti Airtel on March 19 and RCom on March 18 this year. "Each of them has refuted the charge and claimed that their revenue details have been worked out keeping in view various court judgements and hence are in order," Prasad said.

The minister said the companies have given representation which is being examined by the DoT before taking a final decision.