§ 95. Reports of telegraph corporations and telephone corporations.
1. Every telegraph corporation and every telephone corporation shall
file with the commission an annual report at a time and covering the
yearly period fixed by the commission. Such annual reports shall be
verified by the oath of the president, vice-president, treasurer,
secretary, general manager or receiver if any of such corporations, or
by the person required to file the same. Verification shall be made by
the official holding office at the time of the filing of said report,
and if not made upon the knowledge of the person verifying the same
shall set forth in general terms the sources of his information and the
grounds for his belief as to any matters not stated to be verified on
his knowledge. The commission shall prescribe the form of such reports
and the character of the information to be contained therein and may,
from time to time make such changes and additions in regard to form and
contents thereof as it may deem proper and shall furnish a blank form
for such annual reports to every telegraph corporation and every
telephone corporation required to make the same. When the report of any
telegraph corporation or telephone corporation is defective or erroneous
the commission shall notify the corporation to amend the same within a
time prescribed by the commission. The said reports shall be preserved
in the office of the commission. The commission may require of any
telegraph corporation or telephone corporation specific answers to
questions upon which the commission may desire information. If any
telegraph corporation or telephone corporation shall fail to make and
file its annual report as and when required or within such extended time
as the commission may allow or shall fail to make specific answers to
any question within the period specified by the commission for the
making and filing of such answers, such corporation shall forfeit to the
state the sum of one hundred dollars for each and every day it shall
continue to be in default with respect to such report or answer. Such
forfeiture shall be recovered in an action brought by the commission in
the name of the people of the state of New York. The amount recovered in
any such action shall be paid into the state treasury and shall be
credited to the general fund. The commission may, when it deems it
advisable, exempt any telegraph corporation or telephone corporation
from the necessity of filing annual reports until the further order of
the commission.

2. The commission may establish a system of accounts to be used by
telegraph corporations and telephone corporations, which are subject to
its jurisdiction, and are required to make annual reports to it or
classify the said corporations, and prescribe a system of accounts for
each class and may prescribe the manner in which such accounts shall be
kept. It may also, in its discretion prescribe the form of records to be
kept by such corporation. Notice of alterations by the commission in the
required method or form of keeping accounts shall be given to such
corporations by the commission at least six months before the same are
to take effect. The commission shall at all times have access to all
accounts, records and memoranda kept by telegraph corporations and
telephone corporations, and may designate any of its officers or
employees who shall thereupon be authorized under the order of the
commission to inspect and examine any and all accounts, records and
memoranda kept by any such corporation; and the commission may, after a
hearing, prescribe by order, the accounts in which particular outlays
and receipts shall be entered, charged or credited. At any such hearing
the burden of proof shall be on the corporation to establish the
correctness of the accounts in which such outlays and receipts have been
entered and the commission may suspend a charge or credit pending
submission of proof by such corporation. Any provision of law
prohibiting the disclosure of the contents of telegraph messages or the
contents or substance of telephone communications shall not be deemed to
prohibit the disclosure of any matter in accordance with the provisions
of this chapter.

3. In the case of a telephone corporation having property actually
used in the public service within the state of a value of less than ten
thousand dollars and operated for profit, the commission may and
wherever it deems it practicable shall prescribe a simplified system of
accounts and reports suitable to the character and activities of the
telephone corporation regulated.