The Department of Telecom is likely to slap a demand notice of Rs. 650 crore on Bharti Airtel for allegedly violating licence norms on subscriber local dialing (SLD) services.
"DoT this week has approved imposition of demand notices of financial penalty of Rs. 500 crore and Rs. 100 crore respectively on Bharti Airtel for violating licence conditions by provisioning of SLD services," sources said.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has approved the recommendations of a DoT committee which stated that the maximum permissible financial penalty of Rs. 50 crore each for 13 circles where the violations took place may be imposed on Bharti Airtel.
When contacted, a Bharti Airtel spokesperson said, "We haven't received any such notice and therefore will be unable to comment."
The committee also added that Bharti Airtel should be asked to provide the call detail records (CDRs) of all calls in respect of the SLD service and the loss incurred to national exchequer in the form of licence fee and spectrum charges should also be recovered from the company.
Sources said Bharti Airtel was offering SLD services in 2003 and despite being instructed to stop, the company kept on providing the service up to 2005.