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Bhaskar Hazarika
NEW DELHI: BPOs may have to pay a heavy price for using unlicensed net telephony, which has been identified as a threat to national security.
Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) has pointed out that a number of BPOs have been operating their businesses in India by using the Internet telephony from unlicensed Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
According to industry experts some of the invalid foreign ISPs running their businesses in India includes some of the popular names like the MSN, Yahoo, Skype, Net2Phone, Dialpad, Media Ring, Euros.
These unregistered ISPs escape the service tax of 12.24 per cent, in addition to a revenue share of six per cent to the government and continue to offer this service.
However, DoT vigilance team will swing into action soon with the ISPAI urging for immediate action. DoT officials pointed out that the unlicensed ISPs fail to provide detailed call report, which is an issue of national security. They are do not pay the service tax to the government and loss for the bona fide licensed Internet Telephony Service Providers.
“A number of BPOs are using the services of these unlicensed ISPs, which has been a huge loss of revenue for the government. It is estimated by using these unlicensed telephony brings about Rs 1 crore per month to the government exchequer.
These are counted as the grey market operations in the ISPs,” Rajesh Chharia, president of ISPAI said. However, Chharia denied revealing the names of the BPOs using illegal net telephony.
Reports pointed out that the South Korean government imposed a ban on Skype, for offering ‘illegal’ net telephony in the country.
According to the guidelines laid by the Ministry of Communications and IT, net telephony can only be offered by a registered ISP or a by a unified access service licensee. “The companies availing this service should look into the pros and cons before using this service. The website of Department of Telecom and the Telecom Regulatory of India contains the list of licensed ISPs which are authorised to offer this service,” DP Vaidya, vice-president, ISPAI said.
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