Bharti acknowledges receipt of special audit report

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Thursday said it has always followed highest accounting standards and confirmed receiving a copy of the special audit report submitted by government-appointed auditors to the Department of Telecom.

Bharti Airtel Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Kapoor confirmed that the company has received a copy of the special audit report, but declined to share further details.

"We have always complied with the highest governance, audit and accounting process...we are confident that we have always remained on the right side and will remain on the right side," Kapoor said after announcing Airtel's plans to debut in media and entertainment.

Bharti Airtel also announced that it will create a digital media exchange for integrated content delivery.

The government-appointed special auditors, looking into the books of telecom firm Bharti Airtel for alleged under-payment of licence fee, submitted the report to the Department of Telecom (DoT) yesterday.

However, sources in the DoT, too, declined to divulge details about the findings.

A similar audit has been ordered on Vodafone-Essar, Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular and RCom. While the report on RCom was submitted late last year, the others are likely to come out by March 15.

The DoT's action comes after telecom regulator TRAI found a jump in revenue from long-distance segment in case of Bharti Airtel, which attracts only six per cent licence fee against up to 10 per cent for other mobile services.

Under the country's telecom policy, all firms of the sector have to pay the government 6-10 per cent of their annual revenues as licence fee and another 2-6 per cent as spectrum charge.