21 December 2017

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CAG Five telecom companies caused Rs. 2578 crore loss to exchequer government

CAG Five telecom companies caused Rs. 2578 crore loss to exchequer government

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said five telcos — Tata Teleservices, Telenor, Videocon Telecom, Quadrant (a Videocon group firm) and Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) paid less revenue by allegedly understating their revenue by over Rs 14,800 crore, resulting in a short fall of nearly Rs 2,578 crore to the exchequer

The report tabled in the Parliament said the government was paid Rs 1,015.17 crore less in licence fee, Rs 511.53 crore in spectrum usage charge (SUC), and Rs 1,052.13 crore as interest applicable on delay in payment. Licence fee and SUC are paid as a percentage of the annual gross revenue (AGR).

"To sum up the verification of records of five PSPs (private sector players) by audit indicated total understatement of AGR (adjusted gross revenue) of Rs 14,813.97 crore for the period up to 2014-15 and consequent short payment of revenue share on government of India to the tune of Rs 1,526.7 crore,"

The government collection from Tata Teleservices was short by Rs 1,893.6 crore, Telenor Rs 603.75 crore, Videocon Rs 48.08 crore, Quadrant Rs 26.62 crore and Jio Rs 6.78 crore for licence fee, spectrum usage charge (SUC) and applicable interest charges, said the CAG report.

"The charge on Reliance Jio is related to 'revenue share on realized forex gain'. This is an industry issue and was referred to TDSAT which ruled in favor of telecom operators. However, the TDSAT decision was appealed against by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and this matter is currently subjudice with the Hon'ble Supreme Court," said a Reliance Jio spokesperson.

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Thursday, December 21, 2017

Tags – CAG Report Telecom Companies Revenue