The Department of Telecom (DoT) is understood to have decided to slap a total penalty of Rs 132 crore on some major telecom operators for not rolling out services on time after the award of licence and spectrum. The penalty, which will be in the form of liquidated damages (LDs), are for delays since 2005, for which show-cause notices had been issued earlier.
“As per the calculation, the revised LD amount is Rs 132 crore on Bharti Airtel (Rs 28.20 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 19.85 crore), Tata Teleservices (Rs 36.5 crore) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (Rs 3.7 crore). The LD on Aircel is Rs 28.995 crore, while Vodafone Essar, MTNL, BSNL have not been slapped with any LD,” said an internal DoT note.
