The Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has stayed the orders of DOT slapping a penalty of Rs. 650 crores for manipulating STD/ISD calls in to local calls and thus cheating the government in paying the taxes. This relates to the period of 2002-03, when Bharti Airtel provided a service called Subscriber Local Dialling facilitating this manipulation.

In many earlier cases of penalty also the private companies avoided payment by going to TRAI, TDSAT and also courts and getting relaxation or full favourable judgement.