The Telecom Disputes Settlement And Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has dismissed the Department of Telecommunications? (DoT) directive asking operators to submit their books for audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), saying that it was arbitrary, according to news reports. The TDSAT bench set aside the directive on the grounds that the DoT had already carried out a special audit and further audit by the CAG was unwarranted.
However, it said that for 2008-09, the DoT can get a special audit done after citing adequate reasons or in cases where audit or special audit has not been done. Prior to this, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Reliance Communications (RCOM) had been asked by the CAG to submit their account books to ensure that they were paying dues in an appropriate manner to the government.
These operators, who were earlier subjected to a special audit after the government observed irregularities related to fee payments, have maintained that the government auditor CAG has no jurisdiction over the accounts of private operators.
As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act, 2002, the accounts of private operators can be audited by the CAG and the same was also incorporated in the licences of these players. The CAG, however, has said that it was not auditing the books of accounts of the private telecom operators per se, but only those records that relate to determining whether the share of revenues being paid to the government was correct.
