DoT appoints firm for special audit of RCom

The government has mandated a Jaipur-based accounting firm to conduct the special audit of the accounts of Anil Ambani-promoted telecom firms for alleged evasion of licence fee, in three months of starting work.

Parakh and Co of Jaipur has been engaged to carry out verification of accounts of Reliance Communications, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Communications Infrastructure, official sources said, adding that the company has been asked to submit the report within three months of its engagement.

As per the draft Terms of Reference, the audit firm would look into whether the books of the ADAG companies have been prepared in compliance with the norms for preparing Annual Financial Accounts prescribed under the Licence Agreement for the purpose of paying licence fee.

The special audit would go into whether there was any gap between the revenue reported to telecom regulator Trai and to the stock exchanges/Sebi for the year 2007-08, as reported by an equity research organisation.

Reliance Communications is one of the largest private telecom companies offering various types of services including mobile, basic, long-distance and broadband.

As per the licensing norms, some services like domestic long-distance attract a lower licence fee compared to mobile services and Reliance has been facing allegations of evading payment of licence fee to the government.