The Hindu Business Line : DoT to impose Rs 150-crore penalty on Reliance Infocomm — Company given 7 days to respond to notice

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DoT to impose Rs 150-crore penalty on Reliance Infocomm — Company given 7 days to respond to notice

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BSNL had filed its complaint with the Government charging that Reliance was illegally routing long distance calls to avoid payment of `access deficit charges' (ADC).

New Delhi , Nov. 26

THE Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has shot off a notice to Reliance Infocomm indicating that it will impose an Rs 150-crore penalty on it for violating the international long distance (ILD) licence conditions.

The company has been given seven days' time to respond to the notice after which a final decision will be taken by DoT.

When contacted, the DoT Secretary, Mr Nripendra Misra, said, "We are awaiting their reply to our notice. No final decision has been taken as yet."

However, in the notice sent to the company, DoT has said that it intended to impose a penalty of Rs 150 crore for routing international long distance calls as local calls.

This is the second time that DoT has hauled up Reliance Infocomm. Earlier, the company was asked to pay a penalty of around Rs 500 crore for allowing roaming facility to its limited mobile subscribers through multiple registration.

This time, Reliance Infocomm has been accused of routing ILD calls into the country as if they were local calls. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) had filed its complaint with the Government charging that Reliance was illegally routing long distance calls to avoid payment of `access deficit charges' (ADC).

ADC is a sort of a levy imposed by the telecom regulator on all operators to subsidise rural telephones set up by BSNL.

The state-owned company had also threatened to disconnect Reliance Infocomm and sought dues amounting to Rs 500 crore from the company. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) had also raised a demand of around Rs 300 crore from Reliance for similar violations. The matter was taken up by Reliance Infocomm to the Delhi High Court, which ordered the State units to maintain status quo. BSNL has since filed a counter appeal in the Supreme Court against the High Court order, which is to come up for hearing on December 3.

Sources in Reliance said that the company would seek more time from DoT to respond to the notice. They said that there was also a view within the company that the penalty should be challenged in the courts but the future course of action would be clearer in the coming week.

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DoT to impose Rs 150-crore penalty on Reliance Infocomm — Company given 7 days to respond to notice