Govt orders special audit at four telcos

After telecom major Reliance Communications, the department of telecommunications has ordered a special audit of the books of four other telecom companies -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices.

The books of these companies had come under a cloud after it was alleged that many of them had not been paying the goverment's share of revenue by showing the revenue earned under other categories.

Under a suggestion of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, a special audit of all the integrated telecom companies will be undertaken once in 3-5 years.

The audit will ascertain whether these telecom operators have been declaring any revenue under the bundled handset segment in their books.

Under the current regulations, operators have to mention the revenues arising out of the sale of bundled handsets.

All the companies declined to comment on the issue, saying they were to yet to receive any official word on the matter.

The move comes after the Trai recommendations to look into the books of Bharti Airtel to verify the reporting of its revenue from the long distance telephony segment.

Last year, the DoT had ordered a special audit of the books of Reliance Communications following same charges.

Under the country's telecom policy, all telecom companies have to pay to the government 6 per cent to 10 per cent of their annual revenues as licence fee and another 2 per cent to 6 per cent of their annual revenues as spectrum charge. Both these components are not applicable to internet service providers.