Telecom Ministry to Recover ₹2,578 crore Worth of Unpaid Fees from 5 Telcos

Authorities in India might accept turned a soft verdict for the prime defendant of the foretime 2G scam, only the government is leaving no stone unturned in an attempt to repossess lost funds.

A new written report past PTI suggests that the Department of Telecom, under Communications Ministry, will notify v telcos, namely Reliance Jio, Telenor, Tata Teleservices, Videocon Telecom and Videocon's Quadrant, to recover understated revenues. The Comptroller and Accountant Full general of India (CAG) had presented a report in the Indian Parliament on December xix, citing a shortage of ₹ii,578 crore in payments to the ministry.

CAG notes that the aforementioned telecom operators were required to pay the government back₹1,015.17 crore as licensing fee, ₹511.53 crore equally the tariff for spectrum usage and ₹one,052.13 crore as the involvement owed past the companies. These were calculated on the footing of CAG's audits of Tata Teleservices for 2010-11 to 2014-15, Videocon Telecom for 2009-10 to 2014-15, Telenor for 2009-ten to 2014-15 and Reliance Jio Infocomm for 2012-13 to 2014-15.

Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha — Telecom Government minister Manoj Sinha

Tata Teleservices was the worst hit amongst the accused telcos with a liability of ₹ane,893.half-dozen crore, followed by Telenor (₹603.75 crore), Videocon (₹48.08 crore), Quadrant (₹26.62 crore) and Reliance Jio (₹6.78 crore). Reeling under heavy financial losses,Tata Teleservices, Telenor and Videocon take already sold their mobility solutions to Bharti Airtel while Quadrant has shut its services.

The regulator found anomalies in the residuum sheets of these telcos which had deducted discounts given to customers and dealers from their gross (full earned) revenue. Since the fees earned past the government are calculated as a set percentage of this gross revenue, CAG notes that such offers and benefits practise non qualify for exemptions in terms of licenses. It directs that these are role of the telcos' marketing expenditure.

The telecom industry was disrupted past Jio's entry into the segment. Although telcos like Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications were forced to shutter down their businesses, ghosts of fiscal obligations volition go on to haunt them for a piddling longer, it would seem.