A day after former DoT secretary DS Mathur told FE the behind-the-scenes story of how telecom minister A Raja pushed the controversial 2G licence allocation of 2008, more officials came forth with details of the sordid saga. While Siddharth Behura, Mathur?s successor in DoT who signed the 2G files expressed helplessness, Nripendra Misra, who headed telecom regulator Trai then said Raja had cherry-picked his recommendations, adding Trai?s views were never sought on granting new licences.
According to the Comptroller and Auditor General, the sale of spectrum at prices fixed seven years earlier caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government.
Behura spoke to FE in an exclusive interview: ?I only implemented the decision taken by the minister in the fairest possible manner as there was no other alternative. When I joined office as secretary, DoT on January 1, 2008, all decisions with regard to granting of licences were taken either verbally or on files as has been highlighted by Mathur in your paper. I had no option but to implement the minister?s decision. The relationship between the minister and secretary is a very tenuous one and I would not like to go into it, but my record is clean.?
However Misra, who headed Trai from March 2006 to March 2009 when telecom licences were given away to nine operators, holds a different view. Breaking his silence, Misra told FE in an exclusive telephone interview from Singapore: ?The DoT never sought Trai?s recommendations on the need and timing of granting new licences as required under the Trai Act.? Further, ?it never made any reference to the regulator on fixing any cut-off date for accepting the applications,? Misra added.
? There?s a clear-cut provision in the Trai Act that the government needs to seek the recommendations of the Trai on the need and timing of granting new licences. As early as 2006, I had written to the DoT highlighting this and kept on writing on the matter even after the licences were granted by the minister. The final response from the DoT secretary came in July, 2008 stating that it is not incumbent on the government to seek Trai?s views and no further purpose would be served by engaging in any further discussions on the subject.?
Misra?s observations are important because it was his recommendations submitted in August, 2007 which are often referred by Raja to defend himself stating that he followed Trai?s recommendations.
? There was never any reference made to us on granting new licences; the reference was with regard to allowing dual technology, meaning whether companies providing CDMA services should also be given spectrum to provide GSM services. Here also, even before it was officially announced that our recommendations have been accepted, permission to one company was given,? Misra said. ?The DoT decided on a cut-off date of October 1, 2007 which was later advanced to September 25, for accepting applications. Our recommendation was never sought on the matter, it was a unilateral decision of the DoT,? Misra said. ?While we did not recommend auction of spectrum, we did say that the current market dynamism requires that the market price for licences be reassessed, which was ignored,? Misra added.
Raja?s sharpest deviation from Trai?s recommendations was with regard to merger and acquisition, which later enabled companies like Unitech Wireless (now Uninor) and Swan (now Etisalat) to sell substantial equity to Telenor and Etisalat respectively. ?The Trai recommendation was for banning new licensees from any M&A for three years when they were required to complete their rollout obligations. While the DoT disallowed merger, it allowed acquisition, thus de-linking the two and diluting the performance obligation on the new operators,? Misra said.