2G scam: Sibal blames NDA, says Rs 1.43 lakh crore lost in '99-Dec 21, 2010

2G scam: Sibal blames NDA, says Rs 1.43 lakh crore lost in '99

PTI, Dec 21, 2010, 08.59pm IST

NEW DELHI: Telecom minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday claimed that the government "actually" lost Rs 1.43 lakh crore in revenue in 1999 because of the then BJP-led NDA regime shifting to revenue share system from fixed licence fee for telecom operations.

"The actual loss to the exchequer was Rs 1.43 lakh crore in 1999 when the then government gave up auction and shifted to revenue share and also increased the duration of licence to 20 years from 10 years," Sibal said.

His comment comes at a time when the government auditor CAG has quantified a "presumptive" revenue loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore due to non-auction of 2G spectrum in 2008 by former telecom minister A Raja -- an issue that has rocked the nation.

Speaking on the spectrum availability and allocation policy, Sibal asserted that no discrimination will be allowed. "Spectrum is a limited resource and we must ensure that enough spectrum is made available to accommodate everybody's demand.

"You have enough spectrum... We can make it available and once there is spectrum the question is how to allocate it," he told NDTV while emphasising that "right from 2001 to 2009 nobody has paid for spectrum."

Every operator has paid one-time entry fee of Rs 1,658 crore. Low entry fee was the main reason for such a high growth in the telecom sector in the last few years.

In 2001, teledensity was just three per cent, in 2007 it was 18.22 per cent and in 2009 it touched 61 per cent, he said adding that this means 720 million cellphone users are there and this happened mainly due to low tariff.

Asked whether there was any wrongdoing in the implementation of policy, Sibal said: "Show-cause notices have been sent and this shows that some wrongdoing was there."

He, however, declined to comment on the issue but said three separate issues are being looked into -- policy formation, policy implementation and criminal culpability.

As far as policy is concerned, the telecom ministry has already initiated action, while the CBI is probing the criminal culpability, if any.