Bharti Airtel, the largest private telecom player in India, is now under scanner of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) with allegation of ‘under-reporting’ of revenues for carrying long-distance traffic.
The CVC has asked the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to conduct an enquiry regarding the wrongdoings of Bharti which cost the government a revenue loss of over Rs 100 crore in a year, and also any involvement of DoT officials in the alleged irregularities.
Government has asked CVC to submit the enquiry report by 2009. “We have asked for an investigation on the issue since a complaint has been received. But we have not named or launched investigations against any individual official. When the report of the investigation is filed, we will take further action,” said an official of CVC.
The probe order came in the wake of a complaint by Member of Parliament Ajay Chakraborty who alleged that in 2008 Bharti Airtel had raised the levy charges from smaller telecom companies from 25 paise per minute to 55 paise per minute for using its network in case of long distance national call, but it did not share the benefit of this profit with the government that caused a loss of Rs 8.3 crore per month and Rs 100 crore per annum.
Moreover, the customers of those smaller telecom firms had also made several complaints regarding higher call charges as against the set STD charges. Chakraborty has also added that there could be a possible nexus between the DoT or TRAI officials and the company.
Meanwhile, DoT has already ordered a special audit of Bharti Airtel, and CVC will look into charges of any irregularities against DoT and TRAI officials.
Responding over this allegation of misdeeds, a spokesperson of Bharti Airtel said that the company has already provided relevant information to both telecom regulator TRAI and DoT and will be happy to provide further details, if required.
So far, CVC has only forwarded Chakraborty’s letter to DoT and asked the regulator to submit its reply in 12 weeks, he added.
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