The Department of Telecom (DoT) is understood to have sought clarification from Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular for not declaring the income from bundling handsets along with connections as part of revenue, meant to be shared with the DoT.
In a notice to these three operators, the licensor is learnt to have said: "It has been noticed that no revenue is being shown under the Account head "Sale of Handsets" in the quarterly statement of Revenue and License Fee submitted by you on self assessment basis as per terms and conditions of the License agreement."
When contacted, Airtel and Idea Cellular said they have not received the notice so they can't comment on that, while a Vodafone spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
DoT said it came to know that bundled minutes are being offered discounting the cost of handsets by these companies.
The revenue from this activity/ transaction (bundling of handsets) are not being indicated in the declared/ self assessed AGR submitted by "your company in the year 2006-07 and 2007-08", DoT said.
The service is also shown as generating nil revenue in the current year. The definition of the gross revenue in the license conditions and the norms for preparing the accounts in the licence are being violated to this extent, said the letter of DoT to the operators.
