There is some light in the airwaves. And a new cloud.
A special audit on Bharti Airtel conducted by the department of telecommunications (DoT) has given the country’s leading private telecom major a clean chit.
However, its report talks about some irregularities related to dealer-distribution margins.
In October 2009, special auditors conducting an audit on Reliance Communications (RComm) had raised certain issues relating to loss of revenue to the exchequer. The government had then conducted special audit on all operators.
“The special audit of Bharti Airtel’s accounts, commissioned by DoT has not found any irregularity in the company's books or loss of revenue fee to the government on account of licence fee or spectrum fee,” said Manoj Kohli, Bharti Airtel CEO (Global Services) and Joint MD.
The audit report, however, raises certain revenue-specific queries involving an amount of Rs 98 crore. As per TDSAT judgement, Bharti Airtel pays licence fee only on actual realised revenues in the accounts of a company, and not on the end-retail price collected by the retail outlets.
The government auditors have estimated a notional figure of Rs 98 crore due to this margin. It has also commented that this quantification is being done only to meet the specific requirement of the DoT.
{{/usCountry}}The government auditors have estimated a notional figure of Rs 98 crore due to this margin. It has also commented that this quantification is being done only to meet the specific requirement of the DoT.
{{/usCountry}}On the issue of maintenance of books of accounts, the auditors have confirmed that the company maintained circle- -wise and service-wise accounts.