Telecom stocks tumble on CAG audit scare, down up to 4.4 pc

Telecom stocks today faced selling pressure, falling as much as 4.4 per cent, after the Delhi High Court held that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) can audit the accounts of private telecom operators under the relevant provisions of the law.
Shares of Tata Teleservices Maharashtra plunged 4.4 per cent, while Idea Cellular fell by 1.88 per cent on the BSE.
Among others, Reliance Communications was down 0.53 per cent. Bharti Airtel also ended marginally down.
The broader market was also sluggish with the Sensex slipping over 64 points.
A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and V Kameswar Rao permitted the top accounting body to conduct audit of private telecom companies under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act.

It rejected the separate petitions of Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers (AUSPI) and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) filed against the decision of Telecom tribunal TDSAT on the issue in 2010.
The high court had reserved its order in November 2013, after conducting marathon hearings on the issue where it took on record submissions of the Centre, CAG and the petitioners -- COAI and AUSPI.