Spectrum policy under fire in RS; No wrongdoing says Govt

New Delhi, July 23 (PTI) India's opposition party on
Thursday lambasted the Telecom Ministry alleging that the 2G
spectrum allocation to the mobile operators resulted in a loss
Rs 60,000 crore to the exchequer, a charge rejected by the
Government.

Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said in Rajya Sabha
(Upper House of Indian Parliament) the difference in the
valuation of spectrum awarded by the government in 2007 to
private players and the value realised in transaction with
foreign companies in each case has been minimum Rs 6000-7000
crore.

"The nine licenses collectively along with spectrum
were thus allotted at an under-valuation, which exceeds Rs
60,000 crore," he said participating in a debate on
functioning of the Communication & IT Ministry.

Jaitley said while the entry of private players has
raised standards of entrepreneurship, "their capacity to
influence decision-making in government, through collateral
methods is one disturbing feature."

Describing it as a "criminal misconduct", he said the
case should be investigated.

However, India's Telecom Minister A Raja rejected the
charge of any wrongdoing in 2G spectrum allocation stating the
auction of spectrum would have resulted in high price of the
mobile service for the common man.

"2G is a service for the common man for which auction
cannot be held", he said.

Department of Telecom followed a First-Come-First-Served
policy while allocating license and spectrum for Rs 1651
crore. This policy came under severe criticism when new
operators like Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless sold stakes
in their telecom ventures to foreign partners at huge premium.

Describing the 2007 allotment of 2G spectrum (first
come first served basis) as "wrongful", the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) leader said, "there is no reason why the guilty in
this case are not investigated and prosecuted for having
conferred a huge pecuniary advantage on private persons while
causing wrongful loss to the government through this criminal
misconduct." PTI ANA
RAI
NNNN




The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this
message are intended for the exclusive
use of the addressee(s) and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged
information. If you are not the intended
recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please
notify the sender immediately and destroy
all copies of this message and any attachments contained in it.