Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Aug 31, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Aug 31, 2005 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications TDSAT quashes DoT penalty on Arvind Mills Our Bureau
New Delhi , Aug. 30 THE Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has quashed the penalty imposed by the Department of Telecom (DoT) on Arvind Mills for allegedly not paying the licence fee in full. The company has the licence to operate radio trunking telecom services across nine cities since 1996. The dispute dates back to 2001 when the Government had moved from a fixed licence fee regime to a revenue sharing regime for radio trunking services. Arvind Mills offers radio trunking services in Ahmedabad, Faridabad, Vashi, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Surat, Baroda and Mumbai. Initially, the licence fee was to be paid in advance on a fixed basis at the rate of Rs 600 per subscriber per year. Under the revenue sharing regime, the DoT is entitled to collect the licence fee of 5 per cent of the audited gross revenue of the company. This licence fee was payable on a self-assessment of the gross income of the licensee on quarterly basis in advance. As per the fresh licensing conditions at the end of the financial year, Arvind Mills was to submit its audited statement of accounts as approved by the board of directors for auditing by DoT and on such auditing if it was found that advance payment of licence fee calculated under the new regime fell short of what was due on actual basis. The dispute had risen because it was not clear how the shortfall would be calculated for the period of migration between the old fixed licence fee regime and the revenue sharing regime. "A perusal of the licence conditions of the revenue sharing regime does not show that any specific provision has been made for the levy of penalty for any shortfall during the transitory period i.e. between November 1, 2001 and March 31, 2005. In the absence of any such specific provision to calculate the levy for this transitory period, it cannot be construed that a pro rata basis for this purpose was agreed upon between the parties," the TDSAT order said.
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