Dot Accused Of Inaction Against Defaulters

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has accused the department of telecommunications of not taking precipitate action against defaulting telecom companies.

Instead, the DoT has put "a premium on defaults which resulted in mounting dues", says the report, which was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

The special audit _ demanded by Jagmohan when he was the Union communications minister _ goes into the licence fee dues of cellular mobile and basic telephone services, conditions set under the licence agreement and their compliance, the concession package, migration to New Telecom Policy `99 (revenue-sharing regime) and the extension of licence period. It has found lacunae on part of the government on each of these issues.

 

"In the face of collective default and representations by the licensees, the DoT granted concessions after concessions to the licensees... instead of taking actions in accordance with the provisions of the agreements. This indulgence on the part of DoT served as putting premium on defaults which ultimately resulted in mounting of dues," it says.

Terming the government's decision not to charge a separate one-time entry fee from existing operators as "discriminatory", the report says this gave undue favours to the existing licensees, "the financial implications of which could be estimated after fixation of the entry fee for new operators by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India".

"The ministry in their reply stated that the one-time entry fee was chargeable only from new licensees. This reply is not acceptable as the existing licensees after the switchover to NTP `99 have got benefits of the new policy regime on par with new licensees," the report says.

It also terms the government decision to give across-the-board extension in licence period as "not sound", since it gives a uniform treatment to all the licensees without linking the extension with their performance.

"This puts the defaulters on par with those licensees who paid their dues," and has "resulted in irregular waiver of outstanding licence fee of Rs 1,153 crore," says the report.

The report also castigates the government for extending the licence period across-the-board to 20 years. It says that this has given away the option of reviewing the position after 10 to 15 years and taking decision appropriate to then prevailing scenario "such as denying further extension to defaulting and non-performing licensees".

The report says that the government displayed an "undue urgency" in permitting licensees to migrate to the revenue-sharing regime even before finally fixing the quantum of revenue share which they are liable to pay.