COAI asks DoT to lift corporate veil in telecom license rush
Cellular Operators Association of India, a group of GSM-based mobile players, on Tuesday asked the government to strictly enforce conditions on prospective telecom licensees as it feared some of the hopefuls were circumventing norms to bypass the ...
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: Cellular Operators Association of India, a group of GSM-based mobile players, on Tuesday asked the government to strictly enforce conditions on prospective telecom licensees as it feared some of the hopefuls were circumventing norms to bypass the cross-holding restrictions.
As many as 124 companies have applied for cellular mobile and unified access services licenses. COAI apprehends that some of these applications may be a means of circumventing the telecom policy and license restrictions norms.
In a letter to Telecom Secretary D S Mathur, COAI said: "The DoT cannot allow a group of associated companies to circumvent license conditions and monopolize spectrum by means of separate corporate personalities of individual members."
As per government rules, no company or its associates can have equity holding of more than 10 per cent in more than one licensee company in the same service area for basic, cellular or unified access services.
The association said where it is feared that associated companies were being used to defeat telecom policy objectives and license conditions, DoT should lift the corporate veil and ignore the separate corporate personality of each company in favour of the economic entity constituted by a group of associated companies.
"For all licenses and applications, the corporate veil has to be lifted to determine the economic entity or promoter group that is the real beneficiary," it said.
License conditions cannot be circumvented by means of separate corporate personalities of individual members, COAI director general T V Ramachandran said.
"We trust that the DoT will not allow license conditions and telecom policy requirements to be breached by any group or entity," he said.
As many as 124 companies have applied for cellular mobile and unified access services licenses. COAI apprehends that some of these applications may be a means of circumventing the telecom policy and license restrictions norms.
In a letter to Telecom Secretary D S Mathur, COAI said: "The DoT cannot allow a group of associated companies to circumvent license conditions and monopolize spectrum by means of separate corporate personalities of individual members."
As per government rules, no company or its associates can have equity holding of more than 10 per cent in more than one licensee company in the same service area for basic, cellular or unified access services.
The association said where it is feared that associated companies were being used to defeat telecom policy objectives and license conditions, DoT should lift the corporate veil and ignore the separate corporate personality of each company in favour of the economic entity constituted by a group of associated companies.
"For all licenses and applications, the corporate veil has to be lifted to determine the economic entity or promoter group that is the real beneficiary," it said.
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License conditions cannot be circumvented by means of separate corporate personalities of individual members, COAI director general T V Ramachandran said.
"We trust that the DoT will not allow license conditions and telecom policy requirements to be breached by any group or entity," he said.
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