Grey market operators in the telecom sector have caused the country losses amounting to Rs 458 crore since 1998, say Department of Telecommunications figures.
According to the data compiled by the department, over 60 per cent of the revenue losses have been reported from Delhi and Maharashtra, with violations to the tune of Rs 290 crore.
Grey market frauds of about Rs 60 crore had been registered in Andhra Pradesh, followed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat at Rs 36 crore, Rs 35 crore and Rs 15 crore respectively, the DoT said.
These six states also accounted for over 95 per cent of revenue losses through illegal telecom set-ups, the DoT added.
Earlier this year, the ministry of communications had proposed that an office of the adjudicating officer be set up with powers to impose a penalty of up to Rs 50 crore on any mobile operator whose network was being used for illegal routing of calls.
This is amongst the various amendments that the ministry planned to make in the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885.
There were also proposals that the DoT cancelled the licence of any operator who defaulted more than 10 times, while an additional performance bank guarantee be imposed after the third violation.
Officials of the DoT added that surveillance had been increased and all operators were being given regular instructions for effective monitoring, detection and prevention of illegal activities.
The department has also set up dedicated CBI cells in the four metropolitan cities in addition to Vigilance and Telecom Monitoring cells in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai, to mitigate grey market activities.
© 2025