Govt trashes Congress charges over recovery from telecom firms

New Delhi: The government tonight rubbished Congress charge of a “Rs 45,000-crore telecom scam”, saying the CAG report on understatement of revenue by six telecom firms pertains to UPA period from 2006-07 to 2009-10 and it has initiated process of recovering the money from firms like Bharti, RComm and Vodafone.

“CAG Report on understatement of revenue by six Telecom Service Providers by Rs 46,000 crore was received in February 2016. The report pertains to four years i.e. 2006-07 to 2009- 2010 which is before the tenure of this government,” the Department of Telecom said in a statement.

The report, it said, points out a shortfall of Rs 5,000 crore of License Fee and Spectrum Usage Charge and Rs 7,000 crore of interest.

The six service providers are Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance Communications, TATA Tele and Idea.

“The Department received the key documents scrutinised by the CAG in mid-June 2016. These are being vigorously examined and the process of issue of demands for the four financial years for six operators in 22 license service areas in consonance with license agreement is currently ongoing,” the statement added.

DoT said the demands raised from this exercise will be recovered with due interest and penalty as applicable under license agreements.

“There is therefore no loss of revenue to Government,” the statement said.

Stating that Revenue Assurance is the top priority of DoT, it said, “The government is determined to recover every rupee of underpaid amount with interest and penalty from every defaulting company in the minimum possible time.” PTI