Govt slaps Rs 32 cr penalty on telcos for unverified users

The government has slapped a penalty of Rs 32 crore on mobile operators for failing to adhere to the subscriber verification norms in 2008-09.

We have imposed penalty on all the mobile operators, including BSNL and MTNL, for failing to meet the subscriber verification condition. The total amount charged comes to Rs 32 crore for the last fiscal, a Department of Telecom official said.

With a penalty of Rs 1,000 for each unverified subscriber, the number of such users comes to about 3.2 lakh. And with the country's mobile subscriber base growing fast, this figure is expected to swell further, say industry experts.

Earlier in April this year, DoT introduced a graded penalty system under which operators pay Rs 50,000 per subscriber if more than 20 per cent of their user base is without valid identity documents.

However,the penalty continues to be Rs 1,000 per user if the mobile operator's unverified subscriber base is less than 5 per cent of its user base in each of the circles.