However, in the beginning of his deposition, he said that he had questioned, in 2007, the fixing of around Rs 1600 crore as spectrum fees by the DoT for pan-India telecom licence.
"It is correct that while determining policy, Government has to make a balance between welfare maximisation and revenue maximisation.
"In this case if there was a sacrifice of some revenue, it cannot be said that Government suffered a loss," Subbarao, who was depositing as a prosecution witness in the 2G case, told the court while being cross examined by defence counsel.
Subbarao, who was the Finance Secretary from April 2007 to September 2008, told the court that by June 2008, it was agreed between the Department of Telecom (DoT) and the Finance Ministry that start-up spectrum would not be charged and only spectrum beyond start-up spectrum would be charged.
"It is true that by June 2008, the position as indicated in the question was agreed upon between Ministry of Finance and the DoT. This agreement was reached after a series of discussion between the DoT and Ministry of Finance," he told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.
Subbarao further said that initially, the Finance Ministry had argued that entire spectrum, including start-up spectrum, should be charged but during the discussions, the DoT had said that charging for the entire spectrum would be problematic and "legally questionable" on a number of grounds. (More)