A parliamentary panel today said that preferential treatment was given in allocation of satellite capacity to Tata Sky and Sun DTH, which resulted in loss to the exchequer of over Rs 4 crore.
The panel also slammed the Department of Space (DoS) for failing to realise communication satellites against its planned target, which resulted in foreign satellites providing 75 per cent of transponder services to Indian channels.
"It was observed that Tata Sky was given preferential treatment in allocation of satellite capacity, violation stipulated policy. In case of Sun DTH also, a case of favouritism was observed causing a loss of Rs 46.92 lakh to the exchequer and an unintended benefit of Rs 3.56 crore to the operator.
"Besides, an allocation of an additional transponder to Prasar Bharati remained unused due to unsigned MoU between the two from May, 2012 to July, 2013 resulting in a loss of Rs 5.90 crore to the DoS," according to a report by the Public Accounts Committee, which was placed in the Lok Sabha today.
The panel also found that satellite capacity allocation was "plagued with certain lapses".
The government had approved an 'Open Sky' policy and allowed both Indian and foreign satellites to be used in DTH services.
DoS provides national space infrastructure through satellite transponder capacity to meet telecommunication, broadcasting and security arrangements of the country.
According to the approved policy, it had to acquire and allocate necessary transponder capacity from foreign satellites for short term periods so that the service could be brought to INSAT system as and when Indian satellites capacity was available.
"Performance audit on management of satellite capacity of DTH service by reviewing the Open Sky policy of the government found that despite having sufficient funds, DoS failed to realise the communication satellites against their planned target achieving only 22 per cent, which resulted in foreign satellites providing 75 per cent of transponder services to India channels," the report said.
It said Indian service providers migrated to foreign satellites and "luring" them back to INSAT satellites is a difficult task since DTH service is location specific and any change in the satellite position would result in migration expenses to service providers as well as inconvenience to customers.
