Sibal approves Rs 104 cr penalty on Vodafone

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal is learnt to have approved a recommendation by two internal committees of the Department of Telecom (DoT) for imposing a fine of about Rs 104 crore (Rs 1.04 billion) on Vodafone for allegedly violating the licence conditions on routing of calls.

"It was approved on March 23," official sources said.

The fine is based on the loss estimated by internal committees of DoT to the national exchequer due to violation of licence norms by Vodafone between October 2002 and December 2003 in Delhi and Mumbai.

No immediate comments were received from Vodafone.

The committee, in its report, is believed

to have said "there was a possible loss to designated security agencies by the act of violation of terms and conditions of the licence. Also there was threat to national security due to tampering of CLI (Calling Line Identity) by Vodafone."

DoT had formed two committees to suggest the amount based on the level of culpability, revenue loss to the government, wrongful profit made by the service provider and the level of deterrence required and another for calculating the penalty/fine to be imposed on Vodafone for "wrongful gain made by the service providers.

Based on recommendations of both the committees, it was recommended imposing a penalty of Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) each for Delhi and Mumbai circle and in addition charging a revenue loss of Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million).