Govt suffered Rs 12,489-cr loss as telcos understate revenue

CAG assessment says adjustment of one-time entry fee paid by telcos against spectrum price deprived exchequer of Rs 5,476 cr

The government suffered a loss Rs 12,488.93 crore as six private telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications understated gross revenue by Rs 46,045.75 crore from 2006-07 to 2009-10, according to a CAG report.

The financial impact due to understatement of gross revenues stood at at Rs 1,507.25 crore for Reliance Communications, Rs 1,357.68 crore for Tata Teleservices, Airtel -- Rs 1,066.95 crore, Vodafone -- Rs 749.85 crore, Idea -- Rs 423.26 crore and Aircel -- Rs 107.61 crore.

Also, the adjustment of one-time entry fee paid by telecom companies whose licences were quashed by the Supreme Court against the spectrum price they paid in 2012-13 deprived national exchequer of Rs 5,476.3 crore, according to another CAG report.

The CAG reports were tabled today in Parliament.

"Verification of records of six telecom players indicated total understatement of Rs 46,045.75 crore in gross revenue (GR), having corresponding impact of Rs 3,752.37 crore on licence fee (LF) and Rs 1,460.23 crore on spectrum usage charge (SUC). The interest on this short/non-payment of LF and SUC works out to Rs 7,276.33 crore," CAG said in the report on sharing of revenue by private telecom service providers.

It contains significant findings on correctness and completeness of revenue share paid to the government by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and Aircel along with their subsidiaries for the period from 2006-07 to 2009-10.

The audit report on communication and IT sector said, "Set-off of the non-refundable entry fee of Rs 5,476.30 crore paid by licensees in 2008 whose licences were declared illegal and quashed by the Supreme Court against the auction price payable for spectrum in 1800 MHz/800 MHz held in November 2012/March 2013 deprived the government of the revenue to that extent."

The government in 2012 decided to adjust the licence fee paid by companies whose permits were quashed in the 2G case. The adjustment will be provided in the spectrum price those players will shell out in the auction to procure the airwaves.

The major beneficiaries of this scheme are Telewings Communications (now Telenor), Videocon Telecom and Sistema Shyam Teleservices.

It also said the government continued to allocate wireless frequencies in spectrum band of 3.3-3.4 Ghz without auction free of cost despite recommendation from regulator Trai in violation of the apex court judgment that said spectrum should be allocated through auction.

CAG added that the continued allocation "administratively, free of cost resulted in significant loss to the public exchequer by way of non-realisation of one-time charges which the government would have realised had they auctioned the spectrum."

"This was despite recommendation of Trai to auction the spectrum in the 3.3-3.4 GHz band, which also violated the intent and spirit of the Supreme Court judgment," the report said.