Govt to conduct special audit of telecom companies: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Government will conduct special audit of telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular for three years to 2010-11, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday.

"Government has decided to conduct special audit for three subsequent financial years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11. The process is under way," Prasad said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Prasad said that the government conducted special audit of five major telecom companies in 2009 for financial year 2006-07 and 2007-08.

"On the basis of this special audit demands for Rs 1,846.51 crore was issued. All the demands were challenged in the courts by telecom companies...these demands are subjudice till date," Prasad said.

The Comptoller and Auditor General (CAG) has said that government has suffered a loss Rs 12,488.93 crore as six private telecom operators understated gross revenue by Rs 46,045.75 crore from 2006-07 to 2009-10.

The financial impact due to understatement of gross revenue stood at Rs 1,507.25 crore for Reliance Communications, Rs 1,357.68 crore for Tata Teleservices, Airtel (Rs 1,066.95 crore), Vodafone (Rs 749.85 crore), Idea (Rs 423.26 crore) and Aircel (Rs 107.61 crore), the CAG said.