New Delhi: Corporate Affairs Minister Salman
Khurshid today ruled out inspection of financial accounts of
Reliance Communications, which is under attack for alleged
understating revenues and evading licence fee payment, unless
the DoT asks the Ministry to do so.
"Where there is a sectoral regulator, we will neither
intervene nor interfere, unless the regulator has asked us to
do so. If the DoT (Department of Telecom) asks us, who are we
to say no, but they haven't done so. We prefer sectoral
regulators to look at things first. If they ask, we will be
ready help," Khurshid told reporters here.
A special audit is believed to have found that Anil
Ambani group firm RCom has under stated revenues to the tune
of Rs 2,915 crore in 2007-08 and also evaded payment of Rs 315
crore in licence fee, a charge dismissed by the company.
Media reports had been doing the rounds that the MCA
is considering initiating action at the level of Registrar of
Companies to scan the books of Reliance Communications.
Denying such reports, the Minister said, "If we get a
reference from somewhere, we study it and refer it to the
sectoral regulator and then wait for their feedback. If there
is some unwritten rules of engagement it will be better
otherwise we have multiplicity, people taking a chance, and
pulling from different directions.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 21:15