Spectrum auction ‘deliberately manipulated’: Joshi
19 Nov 2012
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) today alleged the possibility of a stage-managed flop show of the spectrum auction with major telecom operators keeping out of bidding, resulting in no substantial gains to the government.
The auction sale of 2G spectrum, according to senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, was ''deliberately manipulated'' to counter CAG's calculation of presumptive loss of Rs1,76,000 crore to the exchequer.
''There is a possibility that this auction has been deliberately manipulated,'' Joshi told a press conference in Kolkata.
Wondering how ''important telecom players'' abstained from participating in the auction, Joshi demanded a thorough investigation into the entire auction process.
''The central government is now attacking the CAG, the supreme auditor of the country, and their main argument is regarding its report on 2G spectrum which was also discussed by the Public Accounts Committee,'' he said.
The government, which had set a reserve price of Rs14,000 crore for pan-India spectrum on the basis of CAG's assumption of Rs1,76,000 crore loss caused to the exchequer in the previous sale in 2008, managed a meagre Rs9,407.64 crore in the auction held last week.
