savramesh 37 Report post Posted June 3, 2009 Economic Times 3 Jun 2009, 0143 hrs IST NEW DELHI: Department of telecom (DoT) will not file any criminal case against Indian and international long-distance operators including AT&T, British Telecom, France Telecom, Verizon, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Tata Communications after investigations by both the CBI and an internal committee of the communications ministry proved that collaborations between these players did not result in revenue losses to the exchequer. The DoT had earlier alleged that the international operators were providing long distance services to customers in India by tying up with Indian counterparts rather than taking separate licences leading to huge losses in levies to the exchequer. The DoT had said that these foreign operators had not paid a one-time entry fee of Rs 25 crore (prior to January 1, 2006) plus 15% of their annual revenues as levies for offering long distance services in India. All these international long distance operators have now taken licences for their Indian operations. After the CBI had completed preliminary investigation on behalf of DoT, the central agency had suggested that the government file a case against these companies for a thorough probe into probable financial loss. But, following the CBI report, the DoT committee gave an opportunity to all these companies to explain their viewpoints on the alleged violations. On studying the presentation by these telcos, DoT committee concluded that there was no loss to the exchequer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
