Telcos fined for violating verification norms

The government has imposed a penalty of Rs 2,313 crore on telecom operators for violating subscriber verification norms till May 31, telecom minister Manoj Sinha informed Parliament on Wednesday.

“For all cases of non-compliant CAFs (Customer Acquisition Form), TERM Cells have taken actions which include imposition of penalty on non-compliant CAFs and filing of complaints/FIRs against apparently forged cases as per guidelines issued from time to time,” Sinha said.

He was responding to a question on action taken by the government for violation of verification norms by telcos. The minister shared details of Rs 2,313.05 crore penalty levied on telecom operators till May 31.

As per the data, state-run telecom firm BSNL tops the chart with a penalty of Rs 583.09 crore followed by Rs 377.51 crore on Reliance Communications, Rs 328.15 crore Tata Teleservices, Rs 300.34 crore Airtel, Rs 285.62 crore Vodafone, Rs 218.04 crore Idea Cellular, Rs 108.82 crore Aircel and Rs 53.14 crore on MTS.

Penalty on rest of the players was below Rs 20 crore. “In case of non-compliant CAF, service provider has to either disconnect the connection or submit the compliant CAF to TERM Cells within 72 hours,” Sinha said.

Replying to a separate question on action taken for poor broadband service quality, Sinha said “financial disincentives up to Rs 50,000 per parameter for first contravention and Rs 1 lakh for second and subsequent contraventions have been prescribed by Trai for non-compliance with the benchmarks.”

He shared data of penalty imposed by Trai in last three financial years starting 2013-14 and till July 27 of current fiscal.

As per the data, Trai has imposed Rs 1.46 crore penalty on telecom operators with highest of Rs 24 lakh being imposed on Bengaluru-based Atria Convergence Technologies, followed by Rs 19 lakh on Bharti Airtel, Rs 18 lakh on MTNL, Rs 15.5 lakh on BSNL, Rs 13.5 lakh You Broadband and Rs 10 lakh on Tata Teleservices during the period. Penalty on rest of the companies was below Rs 10 lakh.