JPC examines telecom policy of NDA govt, to summon Sorabjee

Telecom Secretary briefs JPC on policy tracing the history of the present telecom policy.

PTI | May 19, 2011



The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G spectrum scam Wednesday began examining the telecom policy pursued during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule as it sought to know the quantum of losses incurred during that period and decided to summon the then Attorney General Soli Sorabjee in this connection.

At its second meeting since being set up in February, the JPC headed by Congress leader P C Chacko went into matters related to the telecom policy, allocation of spectrum and its pricing between 1998 and 2008.

Indian Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar, who appeared before the 30-member Committee, gave a detailed briefing on the issue tracing the history of the present telecom policy.

Several members raised pointed questions on the changes in telecom policy in the NDA rule that allowed operators to migrate from fixed license fee regime to the revenue sharing model.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Chacko said the Comptroller and Auditor General report of 2000 clearly stated that the change in policy had caused a "huge loss" to the exchequer.

The CAG had then expressed its inability to quantify the losses and details of the license fees and concession offered to operators in the wake of migration policy were not available, he said.

"Since the figures are available now, the Committee has directed the Telecom Secretary to quantify the losses," Chacko said.
 

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