Not inspecting books of RCom, says Khurshid

Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today ruled out inspection of financial accounts of Reliance Communications (RCom), which is under attack for alleged understating revenues and evading licence fee payment, unless the DoT asks the Ministry to do so.

"Where there is a sectoral regulator, we will neither intervene nor interfere, unless the regulator has asked us to do so. If the Department of Telecom (DoT) asks us, who are we to say no, but they haven't done so. We prefer sectoral regulators to look at things first. If they ask, we will be ready help," Khurshid told reporters here.

A special audit is believed to have found that Anil Ambani group firm RCom has under stated revenues to the tune of Rs 2,915 crore in 2007-08 and also evaded payment of Rs 315 crore in licence fee, a charge dismissed by the company.

Media reports had been doing the rounds that the MCA is considering initiating action at the level of Registrar of Companies to scan the books of RCom.

Denying such reports, the Minister said, "If we get a reference from somewhere, we study it and refer it to the sectoral regulator and then wait for their feedback. If there is some unwritten rules of engagement it will be better otherwise we have multiplicity, people taking a chance, and pulling from different directions."