The Enforcement Directorate books Swan, Loop, S Tel for forex violation

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has filed cases against five companies, including Swan Telecom, Loop Telecom and Loop Mobile and S Tel, for alleged foreign exchange violations. These companies would be served showcause notices for routing Rs 4,332 crore into the country from overseas in contravention of norms.
If the agency’s case is established during adjudication, the penalty on these companies could be up to three times the size of the offence, which, based on the show-case, works out to nearly Rs 13,000 crore.
ED is also looking at possible violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) by Sistema, Unitech, Telenor and Virgin Mobile, which has a tie up with Tata Tele. In these cases, ED is trying to ascertain the end use of foreign funds and analyzing the pricing of shares issued by them.
The issue of merger of companies that received licences in January 2008 is also being looked into. Former telecom minister A Raja, his private secretary R K Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, along with Swan Telecom, Reliance Telecom and Unitech Wireless and their executives were last week charged by CBI for hatching a conspiracy, cheating, forgery and bribery during the award of 2G telecom licences and spectrum.