New Delhi:
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has taken the 2G spectrum war into the enemy camp, challenging the BJP led NDA government's change of telecom policy in 1999 from the auction model to the revenue share model which eventually led to the first come first serve controversy of 2001. He also said that the NDA government increased the duration of licence to 20 years from 10 years.
Speaking to NDTV's Barkha Dutt on the programme
The Buck Stops Here, Sibal emphasised that the real losses from that policy shift was a whopping Rs 1.43 lakh crore while the CAG's estimate of rs 1.76 lakh crore wasn't based on exact numbers.
The BJP has hit back and says the Telecom Minster is indulging in the worst kind of cover up.
"I don't know whether Kapil Sibal, Congress party or the PM are sitting in the ruling party or the Opposition. They are trying to involve others as well thinking that their image might get a little less damaged. It doesn't work that way. We have maintained right from the beginning that they can investigate our matter right from the start," said Abbas Naqvi, BJP spokesperson.
Here is an excerpt from the interview:Kapil Sibal: CAG report talks about presumptive loss, it does not talk about actual loss right...for example what is the actual loss that really took place in the telecom sector let me tell you, that loss was around 1 lakh 43 thousand crore. What I attribute to the NDA government and what was that actual loss? They gave up the auction, they allowed them to go to a revenue sharing regime and they increased the licences from 10 years to 20 years without charging them anything...right... Now on that basis if you were to calculate the licence fee that the government would have got over a period of 20 years right on the basis of tele-density today, the loss to the government would be 1 lakh 43 thousand crore, which would be the actual loss.
Barkha Dutt: You are blaming this on the NDA policy...your government could have reversed that policy.
Kapil Sibal: I can calculate those losses if I were to put that out...so there be a JPC on that....
Barkha Dutt: You also said that it should not be treated as a source of revenue for the Finance Minister .
Kapil Sibal: I said to you that the 10th plan document of the NDA said it should not be treated as a source of revenue....Now they are saying because of the opinion on the CAG that it should only be a source of revenue...I am only trying to say.
Barkha Dutt: Should it be only a source of revenue?
Kapil Sibal: Why not, it depends from time to time...it depends on what call the government takes at a given point in time...I tell you, globally all over the world people still haven't decided whether auction is the best way forward.
Barkha Dutt: Have you decided?
Kapil Sibal: No, I haven't, I haven't.
At a time when the telecom sector is in complete upheaval because of the 2G spectrum scam, the new Telecom Minister reached out to the big telecom players to discuss the issues plaguing the sector. After that the Telecom Minister said he promised them transparency and fair play.
Below is the transcript of the first part of interview:Barkha Dutt: What did you say to these three men: Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani and Sunil Mittal, to assure the industry that the kind of discrimination that the CAG report has spoken about in the past will not happen again?
Kapil Sibal: First of all, I don't want to comment on the CAG report. It is an opinion based on facts. Some parts of it I may agree with, some parts of it I may not agree with. What is really important for me to convey to the industry is that this government will not allow any sense of discrimination. Each player will be dealt with fairly, and our policies are transparent and will happen through a dialogue and evolve through a dialogue and they are very happy with that because they haven't been called and they haven't had this kind of a dialogue with the minister in the past.
Barkha Dutt: What are some of the apprehensions that they shared?
Kapil Sibal: Well, basically you know, spectrum like water, like minerals is a limited resource. When you have a limited resource and you have a lot of people wanting that resource, then those who get more justify as to why they got more, and those who get less say they have been treated badly. So the issue is we must ensure that enough spectrum is available as a matter of policy, we must ensure that enough spectrum is available to serve the industry. That's I think the core issue. A lot of spectrum is available, but we have not made it available. We need some policy interventions so we can make it available. So if you have enough spectrum then almost the entire problem is solved. Now if you have spectrum, how do you allocate spectrum? That's again a matter of fairness and transparency in implementation. We must ensure that.