The identities of at least 4.59 crore Sim card users in India is still unknown, said a CAG report tabled in the Parliament on Friday. The Economic Times reported that the telecom companies had been asked to check the identity of all the mobile phone users in 2008 in the aftermath of a series of bomb blasts in the country. But the companies have not been able to identity around 4.59 crore users, which could raise serious security concerns for India.

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CAG said that the top seven service providers had the non compliance rates varying from 4-54% and the total penalty would amount to Rs 4200 crore. They have paid Rs 400 crore and refuse to pay more. 

Since 2009, verification of subscribers before activating a sim card has become mandatory and in case of major violations, the penalty could be as high as Rs 50,000 per subscriber. 

Reliance Communication, belonging to the Anil Ambani group, is seen as the biggest violators with non verified customer base of 91.83 lakh and a penalty of Rs 918 crore.

The telecom industry has been facing the wrath of