Master double speak?
People forget there are records , unfortunately!
NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has told the CBI that former telecom minister A Raja master-minded allocation of 2G spectrum has earned profit between Rs 3,000 crores and Rs 7,000 crores for the government.
In the allotment of spectrum to 122 applicants in 22 circles, the government in 2008 had garnered Rs 12,386 crores. According to TRAI, the estimated price of the spectrum was between Rs 5,500 crores and Rs 9,500 crores.
When the CAG estimated Rs 1,75,000 crore loss to exchequer due to irregular spectrum allocation in 2008 and Union minister Kapil Sibal claimed “zero loss”, the CBI pegged the loss at Rs 30,984.55 crores in its first charge sheet filed on April 2….
In response to the CBI’s January 19 query, TRAI had set up an expert committee to determine the possible price of spectrum, year-wise from 2001 to 2008. On August 19, exactly after seven months, TRAI gave its response to the CBI.
The regulator said: “The estimates of the spectrum are in broad range, the adaptive model providing a lower estimate and the production function an upper estimate. For the terminal year, the range of estimates of the value is between around Rs 5,500 crores to Rs 9,500 crores, and the range narrows for earlier periods.”
However, TRAI conceded that “given that we are trying to estimate a value that bidders would have placed had the spectrum been auctioned, it is not unreasonable to expect variation between different approaches.”
“Given the scant data that is available to us, it is also not possible to estimate the standard of errors or the confidence of intervals for our estimates,” TRAI clarified.
“It is therefore not possible to predict with certainty the precise values of spectrum that would have emerged in an auction. The risk of error in estimates increased since the exercise is carried out retrospectively and with meager data,” it said.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-07/india/30122800_1_spectrum-trai-2g
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‘Citing para 2.73 of a Trai report dated 28 August 2007, the CBI asks Trai to clarify whether it stood by what it had recommended then. Para 2.73 reads: “In today’s dynamism and unprecedented growth of the telecom sector, the entry fee determined then (2001) is also not a realistic price for obtaining a licence. Perhaps it needs to be reassessed through a market mechanism.’’
This para from the 2007 Trai report clearly reflects the fact that the entry fee needed to be reassessed through a market mechanism for obtaining a telecom licence. The CBI is understood to have also sent a file noting of the Department of Telecom and the finance ministry, both of which had warned against selling 2G spectrum at 2001 prices.
The communications ministry allocates spectrum to private parties only after the payment of entry fees and grant of licence. A Raja and and his predecessor Dayanidhi Maran continued to sell spectrum at 2001 prices and thus caused substantial losses to the exchequer. The CBI, in its charge-sheet against Raja, had mentioned the loss was about Rs 22,000 crore, while its Director, AP Singh, had told the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) that the loss was in vicinity of Rs 50,000 crore. Singh had also dismissed Sibal’s claim of “zero loss” as wrong when quizzed by the JPC.
Following the 2G scam, Trai had set up an expert group in May 2010 to determine spectrum pricing on the basis of techno-commercial parameters. The CBI saw an opportunity to strengthen its 2G scam case and requested the group to also determine the ‘benchmark’ price of 2G spectrum on the basis of techno-commercial parameters between January 2001 and January 2008.’
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/2g-scam-loss-cbi-quizzes-trai-for-speaking-in-dual-tone-79148.html
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