2G LOSS RECOVERABLE, BUT GOVERNMENT LACKS WILL
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
By Amit Goel
The Pioneer
Friday, August 5, 2011
The UPA Government's seriousness in dealing with corruption will be
tested when the Telecom Commission finalises its recommendations on
the award of spectrum to telecom companies later this month.
Kapil Sibal took charge of the Telecom Ministry against the backdrop
of public outrage over the CAG report, which revealed that the
Government lost anything between Rs 60,000 crore and Rs 1,75,000
crore on the allocation of 2G spectrum. The subsequent Supreme Court-
monitored CBI probe resulted in the arrest of his predecessor
Andimuthu Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and several other corporate honchos
and bureaucrats.
Never before has the country witnessed a scam of such proportions and
Kapil Sibal was expected to salvage the sagging reputation of his
party by making an earnest effort towards cleansing the ever corrupt
Telecom Ministry. While the probe into the culpability of Raja & Co
and the day-to-day trial goes on, no attention has been paid to the
recovery of the loss to the exchequer, primarily because Sibal
stunned everybody by declaring that "zero loss" had happened.
However, following an unprecedented public outrage and pressure from
political parties, Sibal referred the matter to the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for its views. TRAI in its
report on spectrum pricing has suggested that the spectrum cost
should be at the same price arrived for 3G spectrum. This
recommendation is now before the Telecom Commission, which is
expected to take a view on it within the next couple of weeks. In
case the panel accepts TRAI's recommendation, the Government could
raise an additional Rs 30,000 crore from those telecom companies,
which were allocated additional 2G spectrum free.
The telecom panel is also considering withdrawal of additional
spectrum from the telecom companies, reducing the life of a licence
from 20 to 10 years and, in future separating the issuing of licences
from the allocation of the quantum of spectrum. All these measures,
however, may not have a retrospective effect. Since the question
before the country is whether the loss incurred to the exchequer can
be recovered from corporates that walked away with precious spectrum
free of cost, prospective application of suggestions will not help.
Given the mood in Parliament, the Government will not find it easy to
settle the matter without taking some concrete steps towards
recovering at least a sizeable amount of funds lost. If the
Government hopes that the mere confirmation of corruption by the
erstwhile occupants of the Telecom Ministry and the proposed overhaul
of policies for the future will mean "business as usual will resume
soon", it may be underestimating the extent of public anger. Given
the humungous sums involved, it is unlikely that Opposition parties
will let the Congress paper over the scam this time.
The two biggest scams of recent times -- possibly the biggest in
India's history -- 2G and CWG have left the common man betrayed and
shocked. The Government has lost over Rs 2,00,000 crore in these two
alone, the beneficiary being private corporations. If the money lost
in these scams could be recovered, it could finance the food
requirement of BPL families by funding the proposed Food Security
Act. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar recently submitted a paper
stating that it would need Rs 1 lakh crore worth of investment every
year in agriculture alone to meet the requirements under the Food
Bill.
The expectation is that Sibal would recover the booty looted from the
exchequer and redeem some of the lost prestige of his Government and
the party. However, the way the Government has acted so far and
continued to insist on "zero loss" belies the hope that irrespective
of TRAI and Telecom Commission's findings, telecom companies will not
be asked to pay more for 2G spectrum allocated under A Raja.
Comments:
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Expectation that Sibal would revover the booty.
By S.Raguraman on 8/5/2011 8:37:57 AM
What a joke ? The UPA lead by the Madame and Sibal are made of
sterner stuff. No amount of public rage can move them to act in the
interests of the country, against the interests of private
corporations (read their own interests).
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http://dailypioneer.com/358570/2G-loss-recoverable-but-Govt-lacks-will.html
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