Bharti Airtel Ltd.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is likely to slap a demand notice of Rs 650 crore on Bharti Airtel for allegedly violating licence norms on subscriber local dialing (SLD) services in 13 regions between 2003 and 2005. SLD is a facility that allows roaming customers to be on the local network and thereby avoid paying roaming and STD charges.

The Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has also approved the recommendations of DoT committee which stated that the maximum permissible financial penalty of Rs 50 crore for each circle be imposed on the company for 13 circles where the violations took place.

The committee has also added that Bharti Airtel should be asked to provide the call detail records (CDRs) of all calls in respect of the SLD service and the loss incurred to national exchequer in the form of licence fee and spectrum charges should also be recovered from the company.

Earlier in June 2003, the telecom ministry had directed Bharti Airtel and Hutch (now Vodafone) to stop providing this facility, saying SLD amounted to violation of the national routing plan and helped companies avoid a levy charged with every long-distance call. The Sunil Mittal-promoted company however continued offering this service till 2005.