DoT slaps Rs877 cr bill on Vodafone for ‘understating’ revenue
14 Feb 2013
Tax troubles never seem to end for Vodafone, India's second-largest mobile phone services provider. In a fresh demand, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) says the UK-based company owes Rs877 crore as its India unit under-reported earnings.
Due to this practice, the government lost its share of revenue from spectrum charges during 2008-09 and 2011-12.
The department has set a 15-day deadline for payment of the total amount, which includes penalty and interest, for the four-year period.
According to Indian rules, every telecom company has to pay annual charges for spectrum usage based on the revenue earned from services. This is in addition to the licence fee that companies are required to pay every year.
The DoT is reportedly conducting a special audit of company books of Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices for underreporting revenues for this period.
The special audit conducted on Vodafone has revealed that the company paid less revenue to government in terms of adjusted gross revenue. S K Mehta & Co, the auditor for Vodafone, had found many irregularities in the books of company.
