Sibal blames NDA policies for huge revenue loss
Under attack over the 2G scam, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today sought to put the blame on BJP saying the NDA regime's revenue-sharing method, instead of a fixed licence fee, caused a revenue loss of about Rs 1.50 lakh crore.
March 02, 2011 / 00:31 IST
Under attack over the 2G scam, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today sought to put the blame on BJP saying the NDA regime's revenue-sharing method, instead of a fixed licence fee, caused a revenue loss of about Rs 1.50 lakh crore.
The licence fee charged at that time was Rs 623 per subscriber and if that regime had continued for another 20 years, it would have earned the government over Rs two lakh crore whereas only Rs 80,000 crore was collected."So, if the net loss is calculated, it would come to around Rs 1.50 lakh crore," he said while moving the motion on setting up the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G spectrum scam in the Rajya Sabha."Let''s not get into it," he quipped while responding to Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley''s defence of the revenue-sharing policy.On exchange of allegations and counter allegations, the Minister said, "I do pray that the kind of partisan seen in the House during the debate will not be witnessed in JPC."On his remark of ''zero loss'' due to sale of spectrum in 2008 by former telecom minister A Raja, he said, "I never said if spectrum were auctioned it would fetch no price..."Sibal was under attack from the Opposition for his observation that there was zero loss due to issuance of licences bundled with start-up spectrum in 2008, in contrast to the CAG''s findings which pegged the presumptive loss at Rs 1.76 lakh crore due to alleged irregularities in sale of spectrum in 2008 by Raja.The Opposition confronted him saying if nothing was wrong with the policy, why then his predecessor (Raja) was in jail. To this, he said "...the possibility of criminal culpability is the reason why he (Raja) has been prosecuted."
There was also a possibility of irregularities in the implementation of the policy, he added.He pointed out both the one-man panel and the CAG have found that the process of implementation was manipulated. "The government is looking at it very carefully. Action will be taken... nobody will be spared in criminal culpability."He squarely blamed the NDA government and said then Telecom Minister allotted spectrum with regulatorTRAI''s recommendations even on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections."Just before the results of Lok Sabha elections were announced on May 16, 2004, three licences were given to a particular entity in three circles... All that will be discussed in JPC," he said.On Jaitley''s assertion that the Finance Minister had expressed his disagreement with the telecom policy in 2008, Sibal said that it was only about spectrum beyond 4.4 Mhz."I have the document of Finance Minister. In the letter he talks about the spectrum beyond 4.4 Mhz," he said.BJP leader S S Ahluwalia asked him to lay down the letter in the House saying all such documents would be scrutinised by the JPC. Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
