DoT suffers Rs 2,500 cr loss due to pvt operators

The violation of the terms and conditions of the telecom licenses held by private mobile operators may have caused the government exchequer a loss of Rs 2,500 crore says   Ramesh Dube, a Lok Sabha MP who has shot off a letter to the Prime Minister in this regard. Dube is  also a member of the Standing Committee on Information Technology.

The main concern raised by Dube in his letter pertains to the milder financial penalty imposed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on these private telecom operators that offered services like 'push-to-talk' and subscriber local dialing to their subscribers on roaming. This, the letter says, deprived the state-owned BSNL of the potential revenue-earning opportunity from the use of its National Long Distance infrastructure. 

Another violation of the telecom licensing conditions, the letter says, has been with respect to the installation of cellular mobile towers in the border areas which had an adverse impact on the country's security . However DOT let off operators by imposing a fine of only Rs 1 lakh instead of the stipulated Rs 50 crore per service areas.

Dube says that about 200 show cause notices were sent in this regard to mobile operators but no prompt actions was taken. However DOT set up a committee only in 2008, though the alleged violations happened between 2002-5. 

Dube says that private cellular operators had been indulging in serious violations of the terms and conditions of the telecom licence. The Dot instead of penalising them as per the terms and conditions of the licence is letting them off now after a gap for four to five years with mild penalties as recommended by the internal committee of DOT.
 
Altogether, the private operators, the letter says, have collectively benefited to the extent of Rs 2,500 crore while the national exchequer has suffered this loss due to milder penalties imposed by the DoT between 2002-2005 period.