Bharti Airtel shares up after TDSAT sets aside Rs 650 crore fine

Bharti Airtel shares jumped over 2 per cent in morning trade on the bourses after the telecom tribunal set aside a Rs 650-crore penalty imposed by the Department of Telecom (DoT) on the company.

TDSAT had on Tuesday set aside the penalty imposed in a roaming case on the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company.

The scrip, however, pared most of the gains by noon and was trading 0.42 per cent higher at Rs 355.75 on the Bombay Stock Exchange at 12.34 pm. At the same time, shares of the company were trading 0.51 per cent higher at Rs 355.95 on the National Stock Exchange.

DoT had issued demand notice of Rs 650 crore to Bharti Airtel in July 2013. It had found the company routing national and international calls as local calls (SLD) under a scheme till 2005 despite being told to stop it in 2003, and that it caused loss to the government exchequer and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam across 13 service areas.