Department of Telecom starts sending demand notices to 6 telecom operators

New Delhi: Department of Telecom has started issuing demand notices to six telecom firms including Bharti Airtel, RCom and Vodafone, who the CAG had alleged to have under-reported revenues to the tune of Rs 46,000 crore between 2006 and 2010.

The demand notices that have been sent out pertain to Delhi telecom circle, sources said, adding that this will be followed up by similar notices for other circles over the next fortnight.

The notices have given out for one circle for one year for each operator, sources added. The six service providers who came under the spotlight following CAG report included Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance Communications, Tata Tele and Idea.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in a report tabled in Parliament in March had said these six companies had under-reported their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) by Rs 46,045.75 crore, leading to a loss of Rs 12,488.93 crore to the exchequer from 2006 to 2010.

Earlier this month, amid allegations and counter- allegations between BJP and Congress, DoT came out with a statement saying that it had received the key documents scrutinised by the CAG in mid-June 2016.

"These are being vigorously examined and the process of issue of demands for the four financial years for six operators in 22 licence service areas in consonance with licence agreement is currently ongoing," DoT had stated.

The demands raised from the exercise would be recovered with due interest and penalty as applicable under licence agreements, DoT had said.