Telecom stocks dive up to 4% on DoT demand notice worries

Mumbai: Telecom stocks on Friday fell by up to 4 percent hit by concerns that DoT will soon issue demand notice of over Rs 12,500 crore to six telecom operators amid allegations of under-reporting of revenue to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore.

Shares of Idea Cellular lost 4.14 percent, Bharti Airtel declined by 2.78 percent and Reliance Communications slipped 2.57 percent on BSE.

"DoT is in the process to issue demand notice of over Rs 12,500 crore to six telecom operators -- RCom, Tata Tele, Vodafone, Airtel, Idea and Aircel -- which the CAG has found to have under-reported revenues during the UPA regime," a Telecom Ministry official said yesterday.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in a report tabled in Parliament in March said these six companies under-reported their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) by Rs 46,045.75 crore, leading to a loss of Rs 12,488.93 crore to the exchequer from 2006 to 2010.

Meanwhile, the government has rubbished Congress charges of Rs 45,000-crore "telecom scam", saying the CAG report on understatement of revenue by six telecom firms pertains to UPA period from 2006-07 to 2009-10 and it has initiated the process of recovering the money from firms like Bharti, RComm and Vodafone.