DoT to impose Rs 132 cr penalty on telcos

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is understood to have decided to slap a total penalty of Rs 132 crore on some major telecom operators for not rolling out services on time after the award of licence and spectrum.

The penalty, which will be in the form of liquidated damages (LD), are for delays since 2005 for which show-cause notices had been issued earlier.

"As per the calculation, the revised LD amount is Rs 132 crore, Bharti Airtel (Rs 28.20 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 19.85 crore), Tata Teleservices (Rs 36.5 crore), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (Rs 3.7 crore). The LD on Aircel is Rs 28.995 crore, while Vodafone Essar, MTNL, BSNL have not been slapped any LD, said an internal DoT note.

"Idea Cellular has to pay Rs 1 crore, HFCL Infotel and Sistema Shyam have to pay Rs 7 crore each," it added.

A DoT official said the department would soon send individual notices to the telcos.

He said once the old cases are disposed the LD would be imposed on new cases which could be much more.

As per the latest calculations the penalty has been lowered to Rs 132 crore from the earlier figure of Rs 450 crore.

The reduction comes after the DoT diluted the roll-out norms in line with the demands made by the operators.

The department had diluted the roll-out conditions for mobile companies by allowing them to fulfill their obligation within one year from the date of getting spectrum. Earlier the date of grant of licence was taken to calculate the roll-out targets.