Media reports show the loss figure had been “inflated exponentially”, says T R Baalu
The DMK on Monday asked the government to order a probe by a Supreme Court judge, into the fresh controversy in the 2G spectrum allocation issue in view of allegations and counter-allegations levelled on the exact loss to the government.
Talking to The Hindu here, DMK parliamentary party leader T.R. Baalu said the party had given notices under Rule 193 in the Lok Sabha (for short duration discussion without voting) and in the Rajya Sabha seeking discussion on the subject as the former Director-General (Audit) for Posts and Telecommunications in the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) office, R.P. Singh, had alleged that a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member had influenced him to prepare the final report of the CAG by mentioning the presumptive loss as Rs.1.75 lakh crore though the actual loss could not be more than Rs. 2,600 crore as mentioned by him in the draft report.
PAC Chairman and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has denied Mr. Singh’s allegations and has reportedly said: “Mr. R.P. Singh’s allegations on 2G report are an attempt to malign the CAG and PAC by vested interests, including the Government. The Government is trying to shift the attention from the corruption within itself.”
In view of this confusion, the DMK wanted a fair probe. “We would have raised the demand in Parliament itself if only the party members had been allowed to speak. But unfortunately the functioning of both Houses are being stalled,” Mr. Baalu said.
Keywords: 2G spectrum case, A Raja, spectrum loss, CAG report
@Raghavendra The middle men could not have made a profit because,
When Telenor bought shares in Unitech, it was via share dilution from Unitech and not through a direct share sale from the promoters.
i,e After the share dilution, Uninor will have spectrum + Capital. The Capital infused through share dilution will be used to construct Cell phone towers, and other infrastructure to run the business.
If Telenor had purchased the share directly from the promoters, then it can be said that a wind fall profit was made. But Telenor never bought promoter's share.
I could not understand the logic behind the argument that the loss on
allotting 2 G on first come first served basis is not as estimated by
the CAG but less and could be glossed over.Even a loss of a paise of the
public money is a loss to the exchequer.
Raghusn - You have made the fatal error of linking the CAG report to Raja's arrest without considering the judgement of the Supreme Court. The CAG report gives us an estimate of the presumptive loss. Nowhere does the CAG say that the govt is guilty of malfeasance. It simply states that in its opinion the govt lost out on a chance to bring in additional revenue of an astronomical amount by not adopting certain methods of allocating the 2G spectrum.
So the question arises, why did the govt not adopt the higher revenue generating method. The entire question of criminal malfeasance hinges on this aspect - why. Now you support the claim that Raja saved the consumers from high call rates by not auctioning spectrum. This is where the SC judgement comes in. It shows that there is sufficient evidence to prove the fact that Raja manipulated dates and on the final day ordered his dept Secy to shut down counters where other than his cronies were submitting bids. This establishes his guilt.
@Raghusn do you know how much vodafone paid to buy hutch, and hence what
was the effective per subscriber valuation!
This is a bargain for DMK support for FDI in retail.
@Raghusn The math you have give would have been right if the middlemen
wouldn't have made any profit. Considering the money Unitech made from
Telenor... the benefit of lower pricing will not benefit end user but
the few who holds the license.
CAG is a group of reputed Professionals who don't claim but just ascertain facts. All of a sudden when FDI is on a big row in Parl. and Govt trying to hold on to what ever possible, just like a speck of light in a long deep tunnel the R.P.Singh's 2G opinion brings much needed hope to DMK and Cong. However, given the time and resource obtained, the people involved could bring any evidence or proof that 2G was sold appropriately. Only sector or People who gonna get benefited by this will be Media and lobbyist apart from investors and never the Nation. It is very clearly visible that the govt. is trying to dismantle what ever that is left to blow the whistle so that it can claim what ever it requires.
Too many figures are thrown around to befuddle the people. May be a
more enlightened soul would explain to me the following.
If the 2G had been sold at 1.76 lakh crores, the telecom companies
would have either recovered this sum from the subscribers or gone
bust.
The subscriber base at present is 900 million. Since it would have
started at zero in 2008, the average base over the last 4 years was
450 million.
1.76 lakh crores divided by 450 million gives Rs.3911. This is the sum
each average consumer would have paid additionally for the mobile
services in these 4 years.
Now, is this what the CAG wants? Is this what the opposition parties
want? It is one thing to punish the corrupt but another to mindlessly
oppose the government's pro-poor policies.
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