12 Saturday Mar 2016
Posted in Telecom
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The story of the private telecom companies cheating the government of its due taxes continues. Latest is the report of the CAG that the private telcos including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Tata have all cheated the government of taxes of about 12,488.93 crore. This is done by understating the revenue of about Rs. 46,045.75 crore.
The government should act immediately and collect the due taxes.
18 Monday May 2015
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“The Telecom Ministry has sought legal opinion on a CAG report that stated undue benefits were extended to companies including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, RCom and Tata Teleservices on a number of issues.
According to a source: “The Ministry has sought legal opinion on the matter so as to undertake further course of action.”
Taking note of CAG’s findings, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has asked the ministry officials to seek legal opinion, sources said.
Raising concerns over various policy issues in the telecom sector, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recently flagged financial gaps to the tune of over ₹31,000 crore including towards non-imposition of fines and the undue gains to private operators.
Reliance Jio Infocomm got undue benefit of ₹3,367.29 crore after the Department of Telecom (DoT) allowed it to provide voice calling facility under the new licensing regime, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had said in its report.
Whereas Bharti Airtel made an undue gain of ₹499 crore because of DoT’s decision to merge Chennai telecom circle with Tamil Nadu in a hasty manner in 2005, the government auditor said.
Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices got undue benefit to the extent of ₹882.06 crore (2009-10 to 2013-14) after the DoT granted telecom licences for dual technology in October 2007/January 2008, the CAG said.
The companies concerned had maintained that there was no wrong doing on their part
The CAG had also said the DoT allowed operators to enter into mutual commercial agreements for intra-service area roaming in 2008 resulting in adverse financial impact on revenues.
The auditor had also highlighted undue favour to CDMA operators when the DoT decided not to auction 800 MHz spectrum for enhanced voice data optimised (EVDO) services in 2010 though they were providing 3G EVDO services with the available 2G spectrum (800 MHz) without liberalisation of spectrum.”
How the telecom department was supporting the private companies is very clear from the above report. While the government is not prepared to give any assistance to the BSNL, thousands of crores of rupees are allowed to be pocketed by private companies on various counts.
11 Monday May 2015
Posted in 2G Scam Corruption, Corruption, General, Telecom
Tags
CAG, DOT, TERM, Violations
The report of the CAG on Telecom bring out so many facts. The private companies like Reliance, Airtel etc. are brazenly violating the rules on spectrum licence, roaming and on many other counts, resulting in thousands of crores of rupees to the government. In addition, the security concerns of the country are violated.
Despite all these being brought to the notice of the DOT and TERM, no action is taken against these private companies. 2 G scam is known to all, resulting in loss of about 1.72 lakh crore. It seems that whichever ministry comes, the private companies are capable of continuing their violation of rules to maximise their profit and escape unscathed.
Communications Minister should take strong action in these cases.
13 Wednesday Nov 2013
Posted in Corruption
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CAG, CBI, Freedom, Government
The cat is out of the bag! The Central Government has stated that it is against giving more powers to CBI. Earlier, the government spokesmen always used to say that let law takes its own course. It was when the CBI was completely under its control. After the Supreme Court intervened asked the CBI not to consult the government in the coal scam etc. before submitting its report to the court, the government has become agitated. It very well knows that once CBI is given freedom to inquire on its own with out the control of the government, the Ministers, top politicians etc. will be caught by the CBI. That is why now both the Prime minister as well as Finance Minister has started attacking the CAG and CBI and don’t want to give it freedom to enquire in the corrupt cases etc.
The Supreme Court should ensure the Independence of the CBI. It should not be the wagging tail of the ruling party.
27 Thursday Jun 2013
Posted in Telecom
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The CAG has blamed DOT for the 3G Auction mess and low auction bids. It points that the loss occurred due to the special clause included in 2008 to permit intra-circle roaming without taking the views of the TRAI.
Let us what the government has to say about the report of CAG?
23 Thursday May 2013
Posted in Telecom
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The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to give the details of the report on the cartelisation by the private telecom companies in the recent auctions of spectrum due to which only few companies bid for the airwaves. In one auction, there were no bidders at all.
The CCI has the power to taken action against such unlawful activities.
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