Chandrasekhar finds fault in Sibal’s claim

Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday took communications minister Kapil Sibal to task for rubbishing the CAG report on allocation of 2G airwaves, saying that minister’s “zero loss” model was an attempt to “whitewash scams and give safe passage to beneficiaries” . Sibal’s “no loss” statement may “pressure telecom regulator Trai to go back on its second-generation and third-generation airwaves parity recommendations” given in May, he said while making a presentation to reporters.

Sibal had recently termed the CAG estimate of loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the public exchequer as “utterly erroneous and without any basis” , drawing the ire of the Supreme Court and the PAC. The entrepreneur MP said he would send his 41-slide presentation challenging the Sibal formula to the PM, the Public Accounts Committee chairman, leaders of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and those who filed the PIL on the 2G scam.

Chandrasekhar said Sibal’s theories might make it impossible for the government to recover lost revenues. The telecom ministry discounted government revenues by 46% between 2010 and 2008.