The penalty woes for Vodafone have refused to go with the Department of Telecom imposing a fresh penalty of Rs 1,263 crore for allegedly under reporting revenues during financial years 2007-08 to 2010-11.
Official sources said: “The notice has been given today. It (Vodafone) has been asked to pay within 15 days.” The exact break-up of penalty imposed on the company for each financial year could not be ascertained.
Based on telecom licences, telecom operators are required to pay licence fee and spectrum usage on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) which earned from telecom services only. According to official sources, DoT found that adjusted revenue filed by company were not appropriate.
Vodafone declined to comment.
The company is struggling to settle Rs 11,200 crore tax liability case with Indian government over tax on its acquisition of Hutchison’s stake in Hutchison-Essar in 2007, but has not received any respite so far.
The company is also in dispute with DoT over its 3G intra-circle roaming agreement with Airtel and Idea Cellular. DoT has asked termed the agreement illegal and asked the company to terminate. The company along with the other two telecom majors have challenged DoT’s order in this regard.
PTI had on Sunday reported that Government is likely to take a view on the Rs 11,217-crore Vodafone tax case next week, a top Finance Ministry official has said. “The issue (Vodafone tax dispute) may come before the Cabinet next week,” the official said.The law Ministry recently gave its go-ahead for a conciliatory out-of-court settlement of the tax dispute with British telecom major Vodafone.
After presenting the Budget 2013-14, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said: “We have decided the appropriate time to go to Parliament would be after we have been able to resolve the Vodafone case.”As far as Vodafone is concerned, they had written to us proposing conciliation. We have written back saying that yes your request will be considered by the competent authority. So, the matter will go to the Cabinet.”