Govt cannot say suffered loss in the 2G spectrum allocation in 2008: Subbarao

20 Nov 2012 Evaluate

In the 2G scam case hearing, the key witness - incumbent RBI Governor D Subbarao told Delhi court that it cannot be said that the state had 'suffered a loss' in the 2G spectrum allocation in 2008 as in a policy decision the government has to make a balance even at the cost of sacrificing some revenue. The view of Ministry of Finance on the pricing of spectrum was to discover the prices for licences being issued in 2007/08.

Moreover, with a view to the increase in revenues of the telecom operators and also inflation in the intervening period, it would be inappropriate to give licences and spectrum on prices discovered in 2001/02.

Earlier in the period 2007, Subbarao had already questioned on fixing of around Rs 1600 crore as spectrum fees by the DoT for pan-India telecom licence. Subbarao was the Finance Secretary from April 2007 to September 2008.

However, Subbarao told the court that by June 2008, an agreement has been made between the Department of Telecom (DoT) and the Finance Ministry to charge only the spectrum beyond start-up spectrum, and later DoT assessed that charging for the entire spectrum would be problematic and legally questionable on a number of grounds.

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