Seven telcom companies owe Rs 2,100 crore to Department of Telecom: CAG

New Delhi: Telecom operators such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Aircel, Tata Tele and BSNL have not paid penalties totalling Rs 2,116.95 crore levied on them for non-compliance of subscriber verification rules that are important for national security, CAG said in its report.

 

“We further noticed that out of Rs 2506.80 crore of penalty levied by the DoT and the TERM Cells during 2009 to 2012 for defective CAFs, the service providers had paid only Rs 389.85 crore,” the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in its latest report. 

 

As per data provided by the Department of Telecom to CAG, RCom has maximum outstanding due of Rs 594.76 crore, followed by Airtel Rs 502.8 crore, Aircel Rs 402.31 crore, BSNL Rs 269.42 crore, Vodafone Rs 203.04 crore, Idea Cellular Rs 74.15 crore and Tata Teleservices (TTSL) Rs 70.47 crore. The Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cell levies Rs 1,000 penalty for every wrong Customer Application Form filled for mobile connections if 95 per cent of forms are correct.