Bharti faces 650cr penalty for roaming rules violation

New Delhi: The department of telecommunications is set to issue a notice to Bharti Airtel, imposing Rs 650 crore as penalty for violation of licence agreement-related roaming services. 

    Though the violation took place between 2003 and 2005, and the DoT had issued a show-cause notice a decade ago, no penalty had been imposed, which had made the department jittery. Officials are now raising the demand, fearing judicial or vigilancerelated action. 
    "As all these cases are being monitored/litigated at highest level in government /judiciary, any kind of further delay may not be appreciated. These cases are being closely monitored by CVC/ CVO also for early compliance," an internal DoT note accessed by TOI said. A Bharti spokesperson said they had not received any notice. 
    The DoT is moving against Bharti for providing Subscriber Local Dialling (SLD) service to its subscribers while on roaming. The facility allowed, say, a Mumbai subscriber to make a 'local call' to a Delhi number while on roaming in the financial capital. The call from Mumbai to the Delhi number is an STD call but with SLD, the subscriber could save on STD charges. Bharti Airtel 'ignored' DoT order for 2 years 
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel faces a penalty of Rs 650 crore for violating roaming rules by providing Local Dialling service. Though it offered immense advantage to subscribers, the DoT issued a notice to the operator saying it violated the national routing plan, number plan and unauthorizedly bypassed national long distance traffic. 
    On June 20, 2003, the department had asked Bharti to stop the service. But the DoT later found out that the service was not stopped and was provided as SLD till 2005. 
    The DoT appointed a committee to decide on the quantum of penalty, which recommended the maximum permissible financial penalty of Rs 50 crore each for 13 circles, where the violations took place. Communications & IT minister Kapil Sibal approved the recommendations on February 2, 2013. 
    Of the 13 circles where the penalty is to be imposed, licences for the two circles-—Chennai and Tamil Nadu—were merged into one on September 15, 2005. 
    But demand notices have been prepared for the 13 circles as during the period of violation, the company had separate licences in Chennai and Tamil Nadu. 
    As a result, the penalty adds up to Rs 650 crore.

CBI backs trial court summons to Mittal 
    The CBI has backed a trial court's decision to summon Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal as an accused in a case regarding irregularities in spectrum allocation during the NDA rule, saying it was based on evidence pointing to his individual role. P 10