Spectrum scams worth ₹69,381 crore happened under Modi: says Congress, cites CAG report

The Congress party on Monday said that the Narendra Modi government has caused a huge loss of ₹69,381 crore to the taxpayer due to financial irregularities in management of telecom spectrums.

Citing various Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) reports flagging irregularities in the telecom sector, Congress’ spokesperson Pawan Khera alleged that the government caused a loss of ₹45,000 by avoiding recovery of delayed charges owed by private telecom players in 2016.

A year later in 2017, as per Khera, the government again caused another whopping loss to the exchequer by unilaterally differing spectrum auction for six years. “Deferred spectrum caused an interest loss of worth ₹23,821 crore to the taxpayer,” he said.

Similarly, in 2018, citing a CAG report, the Congress leader said the government caused a loss of ₹560 crore to the nation by allocating microwave (MW) spectrum to one particular telecom operator.

The allocation was done on “first come, first served basis,” which is in contravention to government’s own telecom policies, said Khera.

“The Modi government has flouted guidelines, also laid down by the Supreme Court, in order to benefit one of the cronies associated with the PM,” he added.

Worth to recall, in a judgement, the apex court had said way back in 2012 that “while transferring or allocating the natural resources, “the State is duty-bound to adopt the method of auction by giving wide publicity so that all eligible persons can participate in the process.”

“PM Modi shouted from the rooftops that there is not a single allegation of corruption against his government. This ludicrous and laughable claim by PM Modi is once again today exposed by a CAG report on telecom spectrum scam,” said Khera.

In its report released on Jan 12, the national auditor has flagged many shortcomings in spectrum management.

According to CAG report, in 2015, the Modi government allocated spectrum on the first-come-first-served (FCFS) basis, while 101 applications for microwave spectrum laid pending with the government.

The basis for the allocation of the spectrum was in contravention of the recommendations of a committee. “These lapses led to losses of about ₹560 crores to the exchequer,” stated the CAG report.

“It was also found that allotment of MWA (microwave access) to access service providers was withheld by DoT (Department of Telecommunications) since June 2010 and allotment against only one applicant was made in December 2015. There were 101 applications pending till November 2016 for MWA allotment,” reads the report.

“Is the BJP Government acting as a wilful collaborator with select corporate entities in artfully violating the Feb 2012 Supreme Court judgement, which makes it mandatory to auction spectrum?” asked Khera.

Notably, the Manmohan Singh government had formed a committee to look into spectrum allocation across all categories to stop corruption, following a nation-wide protest over the alleged 2G allocation controversy in 2012.

The committee had proposed that the allotment of spectrum in the microwave (MW) band to all telecom operators should be done through an auction, which is a market-related process.

“But the Modi government did not follow the precedence,” complained Khera.