Govt imposes penalty on Idea Cellular, stocks fall

The stock price of Idea Cellular falls by around 1 per cent and was trading at 66.35 on BSE, at 11.30am.

Earlier, the Telecom minister Kapil Sibal has accepted the recommendations of Additional Solicitor General Amarjit Singh Chandhiok to impose a Rs 300-crore penalty on Idea Cellular, and has cleared his department’s move to slap this fine amount of the company, for holding more than 10% stake in two mobile companies in six regions of the country, in violation of existing norms.

ET reviewed a DoT internal note on this issue. This note also adds that the DoT’s position is further strengthened as telecom regulator Trai has recommended cancellation of the six overlapping mobile permits held by Idea Cellular The Aditya Birla Group firm holds overlapping mobile permits in six telecom circles after its acquisition of Spice Communications in October 2008. The Idea Cellular spokesperson slammed the DoT and said that “in 2008, post the proposal for the merger, the company had written to the telecom department and offered to surrender overlapping mobile permits” and also pointed out that this was a “matter of record”.