Extended deadline for spectrum payments: Centre dealing a Rs 23,821-cr blow, says Congress

NEW DELHI: The politics over spectrum pricing has returned with Congress alleging that the Centre has surreptitiously deferred recovery of spectrum auction amount from mobile operators by six years, causing loss a of `23,821 crore to the exchequer on interest alone.

The move, “meant to benefit Reliance Jio, Airtel and Idea”, amounted to violation of the Supreme Court’s judgement in the 2G spectrum auction case, Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged at a special press conference at All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Wednesday. He claimed that the Union cabinet has firmed up the decision on deferring the recovery “after inter-ministerial consultations”.

“Telecom ministry and Telecom Commission have both put their stamps of approval on this blatant abuse of authority and misuse of discretion to cause a loss to public exchequer,” Surjewala alleged. “It (the proposal to change auction terms) is now awaiting seal of approval from the Union cabinet.”

The government had sold spectrum worth Rs 65,789 crore in auctions held in August last year.

Surjewala on Wednesday alleged that an inter-ministerial committee of telecom and finance ministries has now decided to alter the auction terms by recommending payment of the pending amount after upfront pay within 16 annual instalments instead of the original 10 instalments. He alleged that the move was “in flagrant violation of the Supreme Court judgement in 2G spectrum case and ignoring the inviolable terms of auction”.

He also alleged that the inter-ministerial committee was set up “in order to help the telecom companies in a clandestine manner”.

Maintaining that the government move amounted to violating SC guidelines, Surjewala claimed that the top court had decided the auction policy for spectrum in the ‘Centre for PIL vs Union of India’ case, or ‘2G case’, in 2012.