With Veerappa Moily taking charge of the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), there is a likelihood of a review of the ?error? committed by the department concerning two different and contradictory reports on the shareholding pattern of Loop Telecom.
In 2009, MCA had reportedly made an ?error? when it concluded that the Ruias-promoted Essar held 9.9% stake in Loop Telecom. This error was, however, corrected in April 2011, when the regional director of Mumbai?s registrar of companies (RoC) ? Western region ? said that Essar held less than 2.15% stake in Loop Telecom, far below the 10% cap. Under Clause 8 of the UAS guidelines, no telecom company or its associates can hold more than 10% stake in another firm within the same circle.
According to sources, Moily has taken a view that such errors should not happen. These sources, who refused to come on record, said, MCA would ?objectively examine? as to why the errors were committed in the first place. ?Such errors need not happen. It would be objectively examined,? a government source said.
MCA?s reversal in stand also attracted the ire of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which castigated the department for preempting the 2G probe. The ministry?s move comes barely a week after former corporate affairs minister Murli Deora reasserted his ministry?s stand that Essar was not an associate company of Loop Telecom. He had, however, acknowledged that there was a communication gap between the MCA and the CBI.
In fact, a source in the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probing the 2G scam told FE that MCA could also be summoned to dispose before the high-level committee over the error. But MCA sources maintained that the two different reports were purely a ?clerical error?.