Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 8 (IANS) The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), probing the 2G scam, will look into the financial implications of the free extra spectrum allocated to private telecom firms during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule, panel head P.C. Chacko said Friday.

Chacko, a Congress MP, told reporters that the decision in 2002 was not even referred to the telecom watchdog, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The JPC chairman was speaking to reporters after the deposition of the former TRAI chairman M.S. Verma.

Chacko said Verma was asked about the decision according to which “spectrum in excess of 4.4 MHz and 6.2 MHz was granted to few private telecom firms”.

Rules, Chacko said, allowed allocation of 4.4 MHz but this was raised to 6.2. “But in some cases it went up to 10 MHZ. And for free.”

“We will examine the matter with the Department of Telecom now. We will look into its implications and other things.”

Chacko said the TRAI during Verma’s three-year tenure from 2000 had not objected to any of the government’s telecom decision.

“The TRAI didn’t even took suo motto cognizance of the telecom migration policy of 1999 even as there was a reference pending before it related to that policy,” the chairman said.

He said Verma told the panel that TRAI had no powers to criticise the government’s policy decision.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) Thursday told the JPC that the country lost over Rs. 43,500 crore due to the migration policy during the NDA rule that allowed operators to migrate from the fixed licence fee regime to the revenue-sharing model.

The JPC has also called former attorney general Soli Sorabjee for questioning about alleged losses due to changes in the telecom policy during the BJP rule.