The Department of Telecom has issued notices to six telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications, for recovery of Rs 12,488.93 crore for underpayment of licence and spectrum usage charges, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha on Friday said. “Based on a CAG report, licence agreement and extant orders of DoT, demand-cum-show cause notices for licence Fee (lF) for four financial years have been issued to the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs),” he said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) conducted the audit of six private telecom service providers and submitted its audit report, the minister said.
“As per this report, total under-reporting of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) is Rs 46,045.75 crore for the period from 2006-07 to 2009-10. As per the report. Of Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the under-reporting of AGR lead to underpayment of lF/SUC, interest and penalty of Rs 12,488.93 crore,” Sinha said. The financial impact due to understatement of AGR stood at Rs 3,728.54 crore for Reliance Communications, Rs 3215.39 crore for Tata Teleservices.