The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on Tuesday indicted former telecom minister A Raja for ignoring advice given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance and law ministries against allocating 2G spectrum to new players in 2008, thereby causing a whopping revenue loss of over Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
In the report, tabled in both houses of Parliament on Tuesday, CAG noted the Ministry of Communication and IT "decided to go ahead with arbitrarily deciding that the cut-off date for issuance of Letters of Intent would be advanced to September 25, 2007, and applications received would be decided on first-come first-served basis."
In November 2007, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had written to the telecom ministry, suggesting introduction of "transparent methodology" of auction, "revision of entry fee" in the "back drop of inadequate spectrum and large number of applications received for fresh licences."
The CAG highlighted the Law Ministry had suggested setting up of an Empowered Group of Ministers to discuss the large number of applications and spectrum pricing, but the telecom ministry rejected it, saying "the need for forming a EGoM arises when a new policy is being framed, and in this particular issue, no new policy for grant of unified access service licences was being framed."
The auditor, however, said the "contention of Department of Telecom (DoT) is untenable, as the rejection of the advice of the Law Minister, on the ground that changes in policy might lead to litigation, goes against the well established and time-tested procedures of functioning of the government and the collective responsibility of the Union Cabinet."
The report said the presumptive loss caused to the exchequer, through spectrum allocation to 122 licencees and 35 dual technology licences in 2007-08, was Rs 1,76,645 crore. It pegged the figures on the basis of 3G auction held earlier this year, in which the government mopped up over Rs 67,000 crore.
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