DoT panels recommend imposing Rs. 104 crore fine on Vodafone

Two internal committees of Department of Telecom are understood to have recommended imposing a fine of around Rs. 104 crore on Vodafone for allegedly violating licence conditions on international calls in Delhi and Mumbai circles between 2002 and 2003, sources said.

The fine is based on the losses sustained during October 2002 and December 2003 based on the estimated optimally routed traffic of 31 lakh minutes in each circle, a source said.

When contacted for comments, a Vodafone spokesperson said "will not like to comment in this regard."

Explaining the issue a DoT official said, "This issue was discussed during the meeting of the Telecom Commission in April 2011 and it was decided that the department should work out the details for imposing the penalty."

Accordingly, a committee was formed to suggest the amount based on the level of culpability, revenue loss to the government, wrongful profit made by the service provider and the level of deterrence required, the official added.

DoT also formed another committee for calculating the penalty/fine to be imposed on Vodafone for "wrongful gain made by the service providers, who were not providing Subscriber Local Dialling or SLD services, by way of higher airtime charges and attracting more customers for such low prices SLD services," sources said.

Based on recommendations of both the committees, it was recommended imposing a penalty of Rs. 50 crore per circle and charging a revenue loss of Rs. 4 crore, they added.