Trai issues show-cause to group telcos

Trai today issued show-cause notices to group telecom companies of Hutchsion and BPL as well as Shyam Telelink for defaulting in submitting separate audited accounts to it and has asked them to explain by January 28 as to why action should not be taken against them.A few service providers have failed to submit the audited accounting separation reports as yet and thereby violated the regulation.

The defaulting companies have been served show-cause notices to explain on or before 28th January 2005 as to why action under the Trai act be not taken by the authority against them for the violation of the regulation, Trai said in a statement.

"These companies include telecom companies of Hutchison Group and BPL Group, Shyam Telelink, and few value aded service providers", it said.

Integarted telecom service companies, including BSNL, bharti, reliance and tata, have submitted their seprate accounts to trai to identify cross-subsidization practices, predatory pricing and other anti-competitive practices and the relevant data for determining cost based charges.

Service providers, whose accounting year ended on 31st March 2004, were required to submit their audited accounting separation reports to the authority by 31st December 2004.

These accounting separation reports provide more accurate and detailed information on costs of various products and services. The authority is examining these reports in detail for any shortcomings or need for improvement in the submission.