Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata will appear before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday to clarify issues relating to the telecom policy and, in particular, the allocation of 2G spectrum to Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL).
The PAC invited Mr. Tata to present his views after he wrote to it expressing his desire to clear the air about the Tata Group's advocacy of certain policy changes in the telecom sector.
The PAC is meeting on April 4 and 5 to examine the loss to the exchequer in the spectrum allotment.
According to sources in the Tata Group, self-benefit was not behind any single policy change the Tata Group had advocated.
“There is not a single policy that has benefited the Tatas which has not also benefited many others,” they asserted. “There is not a single policy which Tatas have sought to undermine, openly or covertly. The Tatas have always acted after any policy has been announced, never pre-empting it.”
According to the sources, any advocacy the Tatas backed was to ensure a level playing field, informed with the entirety of its perspective of telecom, “so that the full benefit of telecom services can be made available to all sections of Indian society.”
Referring to the allegation that the Tatas had benefited from out-of-turn allotment, the sources said that far from benefiting from the decisions of the former Communications Minister, A. Raja, TTSL was disadvantaged.
“More than three years after it applied, it is still to receive start-up GSM spectrum for Delhi and 39 key districts in nine telecom circles. TTSL was the first operator to apply after the announcement of the dual technology regime, unlike three other operators who had applied, on a speculative basis, and were given the okay for dual technology a day before the policy was announced, and spectrum much earlier. Even the Comptroller and Auditor-General has asked for this unfair treatment to TTSL to be investigated,” the sources said.
In response to the complaint that the Tatas had hoarded spectrum, the sources said: “This is simply not true. On the contrary, Mr. Tata suo motu wrote to the Department of Telecommunications in 2005, well before the debate on the pricing of spectrum for 2G or 3G, that since spectrum was a scarce natural resource, it should be auctioned. The list of incumbent operators who have, in fact, hoarded spectrum is a common knowledge.”
The Tatas, the sources noted, had argued that since telecom was so technology-led, the telecom policy should be technology-neutral. “Thus, the Tatas refused to be part of the GSM-CDMA lobby wars and endorsed the adoption of the Unified Access Service Licence, which allowed operators to offer both fixed line and mobile services, and of a dual technology-regime, allowing operators to choose between GSM and or CDMA.”
The Tata Group has identified four aspects of telecom that defines its view. First, telecom is a key enabler in today's information economy. Secondly, its multiplier effect in raising productivity and incomes all around is well-established. Thirdly, it is technology-led. Fourthly, as in most aspects of the economy, free and fair competition in telecom is a must to deliver its full benefit to society.
According to the sources, the Tatas “have consistently stood for a policy and regulation regime in India, which continuously and rigorously encompassed these four tenets.”
