The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has overruled the penalty of Rs 6.50 billion and Rs 1 billion on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India respectively for international calls under the name of subscriber local dialing (SLD) service in the country. The two telecom operators had filed a petition in TDSAT against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) over the imposition of charges for the SLD services.

Earlier, DoT had stated that such a service had caused losses to the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and hence, imposed penalties on Airtel and Vodafone in July and August 2013, respectively. DoT had found that Airtel was routing its national and international calls as SLD in 13 circles till 2005, despite DoT’s notice to stop the service in 2003. Similar allegations were also put up against Vodafone (then Hutch) for offering such services in Delhi and Mumbai circles. DoT had then imposed Rs 0.50 billion in each telecom circle for the violation of rule on both the telecom companies.

However, TDSAT has cancelled the penalties citing that they were disproportionate to the violations under the licencing norms and the services had caused no loss to BSNL. It further stated that the operators had discontinued the SLD service before the orders on the same were passed by DoT.