JOIN US"We have not received CAG report...," Telecom Secretary R Chandrasekar said on the sidelines of a conference here.Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai had yesterday said that CAG has submitted final report to the government, but did not divulge details.
Sources, however, have said that CAG has pointed out that non-auction of 2G spectrum in 2008 may have cost the exchequer up to Rs 1.40 lakh crore besides over Rs 36,000 crore on account of additional spectrum to existing players beyond 6.2 Mhz.
However, Chandrasekar said that the department had given their response to each query that was raised by the CAG.
On reports that some of the operators who were given spectrum in 2008 do not meet the eligibility criteria, Chandrasekar said DoT will take back the spectrum given to those players.
The companies which were alloted spectrum include Unitech Wireless Ltd (rebranded as Uninor), Loop Telecom, S Tel, Datacom Services (now known as Videocon Mobile) and DB Group-promoted Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB Telecom).
In another development, the telecom ministry had told the Supreme Court that the government auditor CAG did not have the authority to question the policy decision as per which licence were issued to new players in 2008.
The assertion comes within a day of Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai stating that CAG has submitted its report on 2G spectrum, which is believed to have indicted the telecom ministry for favourtism and causing a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.
The counter affidavit filed in the apex court today said that all decisions with regard to 2G spectrum allocation in 2008 were taken as per government policy that was being followed by all his predecessors since 1999.
The ministry said that the CAG had similar harsh observations even in 1999 when the operators were migrated from fixed licence fee to revenue sharing regime.