Home minister P Chidambaram will head the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom spectrum allocation. It is to, among other things, recommend on the reserve price for 2G airwaves in the coming auction.
However, according to some officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the recommendations of the EGoM could be also referred to the cabinet, for final clearance.
The EGoM was constituted to decide a base price for the auction of spectrum vacated after the Supreme Court (SC) cancelled all 122 telecom licences issued by then telecom minister A Raja in 2008.
The move comes a day after an Inter Ministerial Committee under the DoT to conduct the auction had concluded it would not be possible to do so by August 31, the date set by the SC. Though the date for the next meeting of the EGoM could not be ascertained, it is expected these would now have to quickly arrive at a consensus on the crucial aspect of the reserve price.
The decision on Chidambaram comes after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar recused himself just three days after he was appointed to head the EGoM, a sequel to former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee quitting to contest the Presidential elections. Pawar is also no longer a member of the reconsititued EGoM.
Chidambaram was finance minister when Raja had issued the 122 licences.
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His name had also figured in the petition filed by Janata Party head Subramanian Swamy in the SC this February, alleging Chidambaram was equally culpable, since he also had a role in spectrum pricing. However, the government and the court absolved Chidambaram.
The terms of reference for the EGoM remain the same. It will decide on the terms of payment and annual spectrum usage charges, roll out obligations and other issues. The others who were part of the EGoM continues to be there, such as Defence Minister A K Antony, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Law Minister Salman Khurshid, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
The EGoM met on June 5, and took some key decisions on how much spectrum should come up for auction. However, it did not take any decision on the key issue of base price, suggested at Rs 3,622 crore per Mhz by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. A meeting was slated on June 21, but was postponed indefinitely after Mukherjee decided not to preside over it, since he’d already been nominated as the presidential nominee by his party.
DoT had made alternative proposals to the cabinet -- a one-time fee on all airwaves held by existing licensees, a fee on airwaves held beyond the start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz or levy a fee on airwaves held beyond the contracted spectrum of 6.2 MHz.