DoT, special auditors meeting tomorrow

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has convened a meeting tomorrow of the special auditors of four telcos — Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and Bharti Airtel — to take stock of the headway made by them so far in auditing the books of these firms.

According to sources, the Member Finance of DoT Vijayalaxmi Gupta has called a meeting tomorrow of the special auditors, who were looking into the books of the four private telcom operators.

In April 2009, the DoT had ordered a special audit on five telecom companies — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications — to check alleged mis-reporting of revenue to evade taxes and licence fee.

The DoT claims it is a routine process to review the progress of the auidit, but the sources said that the meeting has been called to check whether the auditors would be able to submit their report on time.

The DoT had earlier said that the auditors have to submit the final report by February 7, 2010.