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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Congress quizzes CAG on 2G loss

Congress quizzes CAG on 2G loss

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published Published on May 31, 2011   modified Modified on May 31, 2011

-The Times of India

 

Congress members on the Joint Parliamentary Committee on telecom policy on Monday aggressively questioned the government's chief auditor Vinod Rai over his estimate that revenues losses in the 2G scam could be as high as Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

In what came across as a strategy to knock down the 2G scam losses from the staggering figure computed by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Congress MPs wanted to know how likely values of an auction could be estimated when there was a definite policy decision not to do so.

UPA members claimed that the telecom regulator had recommended that spectrum in the 2G band would not be auctioned. If there was a policy decision to this effect, was it within the purview of CAG to examine or compute the revenues an auction would bring in, they asked.

"The decision of TRAI was not to recommend auctions and that being a policy decision, how come the CAG has come to the notional loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore... policy is not a matter which is a subject matter of audit. It is a government decision," JPC chair P C Chacko said, referring to the questions raised within the committee.

Some Congress members also quizzed Rai over the auditor using the offer of telecom firm Singtel to the government to evaluate licences. The 2G licences were sold at about Rs 10,000 crore in all. They said the firm was facing questions over its business practices and should not be a yardstick for evaluating the worth of licences.

Faced with ruling coalition members charging the CAG of stepping out of its writ in assessing auction values of 2G licences when there was a specific policy decision to implement a first come, first served policy, Rai stuck to his guns and said he had not strayed outside his constitutional mandate.

The JPC, mandated to examine telecom policy from 1998 to 2009, has already asked the telecom ministry to calculate losses incurred by the transition from fixed fees to revenue sharing during the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's tenure in office. The committee has asked for the ministry's response submitted to the auditor before the report was finalised.

There were some exchanges between UPA and Opposition members with CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta referring to conventions besides rules guiding the auditor and Congress's Manish Tewari staunchly countering by saying CAG must stick to its constitutional mandate.

Rai will brief the committee again as besides the telecom ministry's comments, some action taken reports by the government were also not available. The CAG explained its methodology that includes prices obtained in 3G auctions and the revenues raised by firms that got licences through sale of equity.

When the committee meets next on June 7, it plans to finalise a list of witnesses that is likely to include former telecom ministers, former telecom secretaries and previous chairpersons of TRAI, besides representatives of corporate houses.

CBI director A P Singh will also brief the committee on June 7, while the finance secretary, Enforcement Directorate chief Arun Mathur and TRAI chairman J S Sarma will make presentations.

The Times of India, 31 May, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Congress-quizzes-CAG-on-2G-loss/articleshow/8654729.cms


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