Cvc Wants Probe If Dot, Trai Officials Connived With Airtel

[savramesh 37]

The Economic Times

12 Apr 2009, 1612 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: The CVC has asked the DoT to investigate a possibility of connivance of officials of the department and TRAI with Bharti Airtel, helping the private telecom player to increase its revenue from the long-distance business.

The company, however, denied any wrongdoing saying its "national long-distance (NLD) business (is) well within the ceiling provided by the authority and (is) as per market practice and non-discriminatory".

A lower licence fee is paid for long-distance operations. The government had ordered a special audit of the account books of Bharti Airtel to verify whether the company caused any loss to the government on payment of licence fee.

Acting on a complaint against officials of the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from a Member of Parliament, the Central Vigilance Commissioner wrote to the department saying, "... the Commission hereby directs that an investigation be conducted on the charges of corruption/irregularities pointed out in the complaint".

Ajay Chakraborty, a Lok Sabha MP, has alleged that Bharti Airtel unilaterally raised its domestic long-distance (NLD) carriage rate from 25 paise per minute to 55 paise per minute from April 2008 to allocate higher revenue to the NLD and lower revenue to the mobile business.

[savramesh 37]

Business Standard

Monday, Apr 13, 2009

CVC orders probe against DoT officials

The govt allegedly lost Rs 100 cr on account of Bharti Airtel raising its NLD carriage charges.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has ordered an investigation into the possible involvement of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials in the alleged loss of Rs 100 crore to the exchequer on account of Bharti Airtel raising its national long distance carriage rates.

The probe has been ordered following a complaint by Member of Parliament Ajay Chakraborty. In a letter, the MP said Bharti Airtel raised its national long distance carriage rates from 25 paise per minute to 55 paise per minute in 2008, to allocate more revenue on its books to the national long distance (NLD) services and lower the revenue from its mobile services.

“As a result of this malafide practice of Bharti, the government is losing share of over Rs 8.3 crore per month and Rs 100 crore per annum, besides causing grievance to consumers who are finding STD to be unaffordable,” the letter said, asking the CVC to conduct an inquiry into the possible connivance.

Last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had noted a significant shift in Bharti’s revenues from the long distance segment. Under the existing policy, the long distance segment attracts only 6 per cent licence fee, as against up to 10 per cent of aggregate gross revenue (AGR) in the case of mobile services. Through this practice, telcos have been paying much less than what they had to, leading to a loss of revenue to the government.

While the DoT has already ordered a special audit of Bharti Airtel on this issue, the CVC will look into charges of irregularities against DoT officials.

The CVC has asked for a report on the issue by June 2009. Commenting on the investigation, a senior CVC official said, “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.” Bharti Airtel declined to comment on the issue.

[savramesh 37]

CVC asks DoT to probe ‘under-reporting’ by Airtel

Economic Times

[Himanshu Singh 19]

Last April it was Airtel which reduced std tariff from 2.75 to 1.5. But it came as cost to other operators who were using Airtel for carrying their std traffic. We must remember there are only a few operators which had pan india nld at that time and even now. BSNL does not carry any std traffic from private operators as far as i know. As already mentioned above Airtel increased the carriage fee from 25 paise to 55 paise. the result was that operators like idea had to shell out a lot more. Thats why you find that while roaming idea says in circles where it has tie up with airtel roaming rates are still 1.4 for local and 2.75 for std. i am sure airtel has committed something wrong.

[savramesh 37]

DoT asked to explain concerns raised by CVC

Business Line

Wednesday, Apr 15, 2009

Taxing issues

The CVC had sent a report to DoT alleging that some officers had manipulated policy to favour some companies.

The Commission had also said that it was initiating action against some DoT officials.

New Delhi, April 14 The Prime Minister’s Office has asked the Department of Telecom to submit facts relating to concerns raised by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) against DoT’s decision to give new telecom licences on a first-come first-served basis.

The PMO has asked DoT to explain allegations of irregularities by Telecom Department officials in giving out licences to a few companies.

The CVC had sent a report to DoT alleging that some officers had manipulated policy to favour some companies. The Commission had also said that it was initiating action against some DoT officials. It had also expressed concern over some of the new players selling equity stake to foreign players even though they had not fulfilled their roll-out obligations.

While DoT has been saying that its decision was based on the recommendations of the TRAI, the CVC had asked DoT to explain as to why it has picked only parts of the recommendations of the telecom regulator in this regard.

The Commission said DoT’s reply was based around assumptions and conjectures.

“While DoT has stated that there is no hoarding of spectrum, counsel for DoT before the telecom tribunal TDSAT has himself acknowledged that the three major service providers have hoarded extra spectrum. In view of a different reply to the Commission, DoT needs to clarify the correct position with the copy of the supporting documents submitted before TDSAT,” the CVC said in a letter to the DoT.

The Commission had also sought to know why DoT decided to treat September 25, 2008 as the cut-off date for receiving applications for new licences even though it had earlier announced that the last date for submitting applications was October 1, 2008.

Expressing unhappiness over the DoT response, the CVC said in a letter to DoT, “Out of 212 applications received, only 18 applicants were considered for the issue of letters of intent (for the licence) ‘as an appropriate decision of the competent authority’ – this is not in order. ‘Appropriate decision of the competent authority’ is a vague phrase and is non-transparent. This may be clarified elucidating as to why a particular decision as taken is considered appropriate.”