The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has alleged that seven major telecom operators have not paid penalties aggregating Rs 21.16 billion, which was imposed on them by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for non-compliance of subscriber verification rules.
As per data provided by DoT to CAG, Reliance Communications (RCOM) has maximum outstanding dues of Rs 5.94 billion, followed by Bharti Airtel at Rs 5.02 billion, Aircel at Rs 4.02 billion, Bharat Sanchaar Nigam Limited (BSNL) at Rs 2.69 billion, Vodafone India at Rs 2.03 billion, Idea Cellular at Rs 741.5 million and Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) at Rs 704.7 million.
CAG further reported that of Rs 25.06 billion of penalty levied by the DoT and the Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cells during 2009 to 2012 for defective Customer Application Forms (CAF), the service providers had paid only Rs 3.89 billion.
Meanwhile, CAG has also reported that the total penalty for 2012 works out to be Rs 42 billion as against Rs 25 billion levied by DoT. This difference is on account of the minimum Rs 1,000 penalty levied by TERM cells for every wrong CAF filled for mobile connections. As per the auditor, the penalty on RCOM should be Rs 9.18 billion, Airtel Rs 9.06 billion, Vodafone Rs 6.01 billion, Idea Cellular Rs 5.63 billion, BSNL Rs 4.92 billion, TTSL Rs 4.08 billion and Aircel Rs 3.12 billion.
The auditor has also alleged that the government has not achieved 100 per cent compliance to subscriber verification rules because of ineffective monitoring by the TERM cells. The auditor has suggested that DoT monitor penalties imposed by TERM Cells and enforce its recovery from the service providers without delays. It has also suggested that DoT implement a comprehensive subscriber verification policy and ensure timely issuance of orders for achieving 100 per cent subscriber verification.
