GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3207
TO BE ANSWERED ON 26TH AUGUST, 2010
Special Audit of Telecom Service Providers
3207. SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR:
Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:
(a) whether Government had appointed auditors to conduct special audit on top five telecom service providers to verify suspected under-payment of spectrum charges and. license fee to Government;
(b) Whether the special audit has also covered the aspect of truthful reporting of
Subscriber base by the telecom operators; and
(c) if so, a summary of the audit findings and whether all the five telecom operators
have been cleared by the audit?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI SACHIN PILOT)
(a) Yes, Sir. Government had appointed auditors to conduct special audit of (a) Bharti
Airtel, (b) Idea Cellular, (c) Reliance Communications, (d) Tata and (e) Vodafone.
(b) No, Sir. However, the Terms of Reference for Special Audit inter-alia included items affecting the Government's share of revenue like transfer pricing, handset bundling, arbitrage, cross-booking and netting of revenue and infrastructure sharing arrangements amongst the other broad issues relating to general adherence to the financial conditions provided in the license agreement.
(c) Does not arise in view of (b) above.