The government has ordered a special audit for Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Idea Cellular to check if there are discrepancies in the revenues reported by these companies. Besides, it will examine if leading GSM players have not included revenues from the sale of bundled handsets (which are given free or at a subsidised rate along with mobile connections) in their books. With regard to handset bundling, all telecom operators have already clarified that they do not sell handsets directly, and hence do not gain any revenue from such sales. They have certain arrangements with handset manufacturers or dealers whereby the latter offer free telecom services bundled with handsets to customers. According to the operators, this has only been a marketing strategy involving no financial transaction.
