The union telecom ministry has reportedly imposed a penalty of Rs 50 crore each on Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications for violations of International Long Distance (ILD) licence terms and conditions.

The ministry found the two telecom operators in violation of the conditions as they were found to have offered international private lease circuits to foreign company SingTel. IT is believed that the Department of Telecom (DoT) has sent notices to the two operators for violating the terms and conditions of ILD.

The DoT has instituted a panel to determine the amount of penalty to be imposed on the two firms. The terms and conditions of ILD state that Indian ILD operators must have authorization to provide Indian circuits to a foreign carrier.

The DoT panel found that Bharti had billed SingTel in its Singapore office for the portion of circuit provided by Bharti Airtel. On the other hand, Tata Communications Ltd argued that SingTel did not submit any document indicating that the customers were acquired outside India and thus it did not find the need to check again.

The company said that it did not check as SingTel is authorized to acquire customers only in its own licensed territory and not in India. Tata Communications has anow asked all its foreign partners not to contract or bill the customers in India under such agreements.