Maran rejected FinMin proposals on spectrum pricing: JPC told

New Delhi, Jul 7 (PTI) The Joint Parliamentary Committee
on 2G was Thursday told by top officials of the Finance
Ministry that the Telecom Ministry, then headed by Dayanidhi
Maran, had opposed inclusion of spectrum pricing in the terms
of reference of the Group of Minister in 2006.
Making a presentation before the JPC, Economic Affairs
Secretary R Gopalan said that the Finance Ministry had
suggested in 2006 that the Group of Ministers on telecom
should decide on spectrum pricing and the same should be in
the terms of reference of the ministerial panel.
Briefing reporters on the meeting, JPC Chairman P C
Chacko said Maran did not agree with the Finance Ministry
suggestion because he felt it was the prerogative of the
administrative ministry to decide the spectrum price.
"The decision had serious implications as the (spectrum)
pricing could have been discussed and decided at an
appropriate forum," Chacko said.
Asked who was the Telecom Minister then, Chacko merely
said "it is obvious".
In 2006, P Chidambaram was at the helm of affairs in the
Ministry of Finance, while Dayanidhi Maran was the Telecom
Minister.
Chacko said the Union Cabinet had approved the Terms of
Reference for the Group of Ministers (GoM) on allocation of
additional spectrum and pricing was not part of it.
Meanwhile, the Chairman said that the Department of
Telecom has informed the JPC that the losses incurred by the
national exchequer due to the implementation of the migration
policy during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime
were to the tune of Rs 43,523.92 crore.

The telecom policy laid out by the NDA government related
to migrating from fixed licence fee regime to revenue sharing
model for telecom operators.
The JPC has also asked the then Attorney General Soli
Sorabjee for his opinion given to the government on the
migration policy for telecom companies.
However, Chacko has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT)
to calculate the losses to the national exchequer on account
of granting a six month license fee waiver to telecom
operators when the migration package was being implemented.
He said the losses due to waiver of the license fee were
not included in the Rs 43,523.92 crore financial implications
calculated by the DoT.
Chacko said the JPC also asked the DoT to quantify the
losses caused due to a two per cent reduction of Universal
Access Service license fee in 2004.
This reduction in the UAS license fee was opposed by the
Finance Ministry, Chacko said adding that the losses to the
exchequer in the first four years was pegged at Rs 968 crore.
The financial implication was pegged at Rs 885 crore per
annum thereafter.
The Ministry of Finance had also opposed DoT move to
treat arrears on account of license fee as an entry fee.
The ministry was of the opinion that it was government
revenue and the same should not be treated as entry fee,
Chacko said quoting presentations by Finance Ministry
officials.
The MoF had also opposed extension in the period of basic
services licenses from 15 year to 20 years and cellular
licenses from 10 year to 20 years without charging any fee, he
said.