Communications Minister A Raja today alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government had distributed free spectrum to operators in what he called “biggest ever scam” that deprived the exchequer of over Rs 1.6 lakh crore revenue.
Debunking charges that his spectrum allocation policies caused a revenue loss of Rs 60,000 crore, he said not only the then government gave free spectrum, it violated all norms by giving the frequency far in excess of 4.4 MHz to many leading operators and the government did not even get any revenue share.
Raja accused BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who has called for his resignation, of favouring major operators during the NDA rule and also defending one of them in the high court. “Now there is infighting within Arun Jaitley (sic). His legal brain is fighting the political brain. I do not know what will be the outcome. Whether his legal brain will win or the political one,” the minister said.
Asked about demands for his resignation, he replied: “I will not step down. Ours is a government that has followed all rules to the letter and spirit by following the recommendations of Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).”
According to papers prepared by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) scanning spectrum allocation during the NDA regime, leading mobile operators including Bharti, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance Telecom had emerged as the biggest beneficiaries of the decision taken by the then government.
“The NDA government is responsible for its irrational decision. The availability of spectrum was first put on the coffers without any disclosure. And ultimately, very cleverly and conveniently existing spectrum of 500 MHz was shared with the operators by the then NDA ministry,” Raja said.
The NDA government had decided that spectrum from 8.0 Mhz to 10 Mhz might be alloted without any further increase in revenue share. “...is this to say that the spectrum that was available were its ancestral property?” the minister asked. “Some of the operators are benefitting from it without observing the law,” he said, adding that “they are accusing a minister who is following Trai recommendation after consulting PM.”
The DoT paper alleged that Pramod Mahajan, the communications minister under the NDA regime, had taken a decision in 2001 to allot spectrum to operators beyond 6.2 Mhz without any upfront charge and subscriber base against the recommendations of the Telecom Commission.
