The Telecom Dispute Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has reportedly asked Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) to refund Rs 4 billion to Reliance Communications (RCOM).

TDSAT's directives came over a petition filed by RCOM. According to RCOM, both BSNL and MTNL collected Rs 4 billion from it between 2004 and 2005 on alleged charges of call masking.

TDSAT has directed BSNL and MTNL to refund the excess fee charged from RCOM with interest payable at the rate of nine per cent per annum from the date of deposit until the date of filing of this petition.

RCOM had entered into separate interconnect agreements for national long distance (NLD) services and basic service operation (BSO) in 2002 and 2003 with BSNL and MTNL. As part of the agreement, RCOM paid Rs 1.11 billion to BSNL and Rs 3.41 billion to MTNL, respectively.

Subsequently, RCOM received a notice from BSNL, stating that the operator's NLD point of interconnect (POI) will be disconnected on the ground that international calls originating from the US were being handed over by RCOM on an NLD trunk group instead of the international long distance trunk group with a change in call line identification from international numbers to national numbers. As per BSNL, this was in violation of clause 2.1.13.1 of the interconnect agreement. MTNL, too, sent RCOM a similar notice.