Govt did not lose by allowing merger of service areas

Auditor has earlier stated that govt has lost money because of hasty decision to merge Chennai and TN service areas in 2005

The Government has not lost the estimated Rs 2,400 crore in permitting merger of service areas - Chennai and Tamil Nadu, while not allowing the same in services areas like Maharashtra and Mumbai, Kolkata and West Bengal, UP (east and UP (west), according to a recentdiscussion of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The auditor (post and telecom) has earlier stated that the Government has lost money because of hasty decision to merge Chennai and Tamil Nadu service areas in 2005 which led to undue advantage to telecom operators.

At the same time, it noted that subscribers were discriminated inother service areas where telecom operators had asked for possible merger ofcircles.

According to the discussion, it was apolicy decision and there was no market determined price for spectrum at thattime. Also, companies had merged their service licences as per the Governmentrules, and had paid requisite fees.