| Policy & Regulation | | | 2G scam: CBI clears Tata Telesevices of wrong doing in status report | | | TT Correspondent | | 10 Jun 2011 | | |   In its probe into the 2G spectrum scam, the CBIv in its status report has cleared Tata Teleservices of any wrongdoing. It even said that that the company unfairly lost out to Swan Telecom in the lucrative Delhi circle.
The CBI has also termed the deal between Tata Realty and Unitech for 517 acres of land in Gurgaon as a one-off transaction and did not violate licence norms. It said its Chennai Voltas property deal was still to be concluded.
The CBI was harsh on former telecom minister A Raja and said he ignored "advice from various corners of the government for a revision of entry fees for new UAS licences and dual tech applicants and deliberately and dishonestly not considering auction or revision of entry fees".
While Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairperson J S Sarma told the committee that the regulator had not recommended auctions for 2G spectrum, the CBI has kept in mind the rising unease in the government that saw the finance and law ministries, apart from the PM himself, urging Raja to consider various means of revising the 2001 entry fee for 2008 licences.
CBI director AP Singh, who concluded his presentation to the JPC on Tuesday, said Raja had treated the Tata application as being valid for consideration on May 5, 2008 instead of January 10, 2008 when new unified access licences were allotted. "Tata should have been treated as an existing licencee with seniority over new applicants," the agency said.
In tweaking the eligibility, Raja and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa conspired to ensure that the sole licence for the much-in-demand Delhi circle did not go to the Tatas. The telecom ministry''s wireless planning and coordination cells were forced to deliver a convenient opinion that "unreasonably deprived Tata Teleservices and Spice Communications ".
On the Unitech land deal, the CBI said the Tatas had on January 7, 2007 entered into a Rs 2,500-crore purchase for which Rs 1,700 crore was paid, of which Rs 1,098 crore was returned to the real estate firm. The allegation that Tatas paid the money to Unitech to pay for a 2G licence has not been proven, the agency said. "(It) cannot be proven that Unitech was an associate of Tata Sons in keeping with unified access service licences guidelines," the agency said. |
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