New Delhi: The government has mandated a Jaipur-based accounting firm to conduct the special audit of the accounts of Anil Ambani-promoted telecom firms for alleged evasion of licence fee, in three months of starting work.
Parakh and Co. of Jaipur has been engaged to carry out verification of accounts of Reliance Communications, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd, official sources said, adding that the company has been asked to submit the report within three months of its engagement.
As per the draft Terms of Reference, the audit firm would look into whether the books of the ADAG companies have been prepared in compliance with the norms for preparing Annual Financial Accounts prescribed under the Licence Agreement for the purpose of paying licence fee.
The special audit would go into whether there was any gap between the revenue reported to telecom regulator Trai and to the stock exchanges/Sebi for the year 2007-08, as reported by an equity research organisation.
When contacted, RCOM denied any allegation of misreporting of its revenues to the government.
RCOM’s payment of licence fees and spectrum charges is based on the revenue arising from businesses covered by the unified access service (UAS) licence. These payments and the revenue calculation are certified by the statutory auditors of RCOM.
Reliance Communications is one of the largest private telecom companies offering various types of services including mobile, basic, long-distance and broadband.
As per the licensing norms, some services like domestic long-distance attract a lower licence fee compared to mobile services and Reliance has been facing allegations of evading payment of licence fee to the government.
The DoT has constituted a six-member committee with senior official P.K. Sinha as chairman to frame the final Terms of Reference for the special audit.
As per the draft terms, the accounting firm would also look into whether there is any cross-booking of revenue for the years 2006-07 and 2007-08 from wireless segments into other telecom subsidiaries which are not liable to pay licence fee.
The Jaipur-based accounting firm has also been asked to submit a declaration stating that it has no relationship with any telecom firm and other related companies of ADAG.