Reuters: Hot Stocks: India mobile telecoms shares slump on extra payment reports

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India mobile telecoms shares slump on extra payment reports Feb 14th 2013, 08:54 Tweet Share this Email Print Thu Feb 14, 2013 3:54am EST MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Shares in Indian mobile telecoms operators including Bharti Airtel Ltd and Reliance Communications Ltd slumped on Thursday after newspaper reports said the government is demanding additional money for their permits and airwaves. The Department of Telecommunications has sent letters demanding over 12 billion rupees ($223.11 million) from Bharti Airtel, 8.77 billion rupees from Vodafone India, and an unspecified amount from Reliance Communications, in each case for under-reporting revenues, the Economic Times reported. The newspaper said it had seen a copy of the letter sent to Vodafone, but did not disclose how it had obtained the information on Reliance or Bharti. Separately, Mint newspaper reported that the same department is demanding the Indian unit of Vodafone Group Plc pay around 9 billion rupees in additional dues, citing the letter sent to the company. Carriers in India must share a percentage of their revenue with the government every year as a means of paying for their operating permits and airwaves. The three companies all declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. DOT officials could not be reached. Bharti Airtel shares were down 3.5 percent as of 0829 GMT and Reliance Communications was down 2.5 percent, compared with an NSE index that was down 0.2 percent. In 2009, the government ordered an audit of the country's top five mobile phone carriers to probe whether the firms had under-reported revenue. Analysts said the reports of government demands for additional dues added to regulatory uncertainty in the sector, which already faces a bill for more $4 billion in airwave surcharges. Operators are appealing against those surcharges. ($1 = 53.7850 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi in MUMBAI and Devidutta Tripathy in NEW DELHI; Editing by Rafael Nam and Daniel Magnowski) Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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