Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal in a press conference declared that the astounding figure of Rs 1,76,000 crore—the loss according to the CAG report that the 2G license issue had—is sensational and'utterly erroneous.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal in a press conference declared that the astounding figure of Rs 1,76,000 crore-the loss according to the CAG report that the 2G license issue had-is sensational and'utterly erroneous. "These figures are on alleged losses and have no basis," he pointed out.
The minister said the basis of CAG's calculation was wrong as the government only gave out 4.4 megahertz of spectrum and not 6.2 megahertz as taken in to account by the CAG.
"Automatically you have to exclude beyond 6.2 mh because that is yet to be laid by us. If you include the value of 4.4mh and apply it to the spectrum then the amount is revised to Rs 99,000 crore from 1,76,000 crore. We are not deviating from the CAG's figures. It's just a miscalculation-its human."
Also watch Kapil Sibal's clarification of his remarks in an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN's Rajdeep Sardesai.
Sibal said that there government would not spare anyone that the CBI would identify as guilty for lapses. In fact he went on to explain that the loss was actually nil.
Sibal added that the opposition behaviour was unconstitutional. "We have tried to dispel the notions that our government has wasted money but we have been unsuccessful because the opposition didn't allow the parliament to run over the IPC issue. We tried hard to reach out to the opposition but it hasn't worked," he said.
Watch video for CNBC-TV18's Siddharth Zarabi analysis of Sibal's comments.
