Merely a month before the Monsoon sessions in Parliament, Indian National Congress allegedly threw charges over Narendra Modi government of getting involved in Rs. 45,000 crore scam in Telecom sector. The party accused of “protecting” 6 big telecom giant companies who owe anexplanation as well as payment to public.
BJP, however, denied all the charges stating that the CAG report confirms so as to dated from 2006-07 and 2009-10, which is eventually the UPA tenure. The understatement of revenues of 6 telecom firms i.e. Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Idea, Tata, Reliance Communication, and Aircel has been staged to Congress government.
According to Congress Chief Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, ShaktisinghGohil and R P N Singh, Government is surreptitiously taking steps to protect the interests of six leading telecom companies by helping them avoid the payment of charges rightfully owed to the government. This is a clear-cut case of loss to the public exchequer verified by the CAG “with the sole aim of helping friendly ‘crony capitalists’.
Centre’s the then Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (now Law and Justice Minister) was taken under scanner as such massive scam can’t be handled by one. An entire modus operandi was taken into mind for thousands of crores extracting from the Public. This “improper” way of cheating had to be disclosed in media.
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Continuing to it, Congressadded further that during Congress-led UPA tenure in 2006-07 and 2009-10, all the 6 telecom companies came under the scanner of audit initiated by CAG. They found an underreportingof cash flow, a non-uniform method of accounting, lack of obligation so as to pay outstanding licence fee along with Spectrum Usage Charges. The total income generated amounted to Rs. 46,045.75 crores in four long years.
Despite a considerable increase in business, consumer base and income, the calculated amount settled down to more than 45,000 crores INR during the tenure of 2010-11 and 2015-16. Modi government should alertthe team after such revelations, but rather it has opted for a different way of handling the scam. It has been currently re-evaluating the figures with the help of Chartered Accountant under Telecom Ministry. In fact, Congress has been lately referringthe entire allegation as “grotesque breach of public trust”.
In a complete state of denial, BJP led NDA government spoke regarding the alleged charges thus reverting as” The Department received the key documents scrutinised by the CAG in mid-June 2016. These are being vigorously examined and the process of issue of demands for the four financial years for six operators in 22 license service areas in consonance with license agreement is currently ongoing. “
At present, they have already started the process of recovery of payment along with due interest and penalty as applicable by law. Also, under the licence agreement, the entire amount shall be recovered liable to the public from every defaulter Telecom company within minimal time.
