Action against new telcos if found submitting wrong info: DoT

The Telecom Ministry has warned of action against companies that won licences by falsifying information, but maintained it had done no wrong in the 2G licence allocation in 2008.

"All the Unified Access Service (UAS) licences in 2008 were issued as per the policy decisions taken by the government in November 2003 and subsequent detailed guidelines issued in December 2005," the Department of Telecom (DoT) said in a statement.

DoT further clarified that since 2003 as many as 51 new licences were issued prior to January 2008 under the same guidelines on 'First Come First Served Basis'.
    
The new licences were granted based on information filed by the applicants as per the prescribed guidelines.
    
"If any misrepresentation of facts is brought to notice at a later date, necessary action can be taken as per due procedure under the relevant rules," the DoT said in a statement.
    
Nine firms were given 2G licences bundled with spectrum in 2008. Firms like Unitech, Shyam-Sistema and dual technology operators like RCom and Tatas have started services in most of the circles and are in the process of completing the roll out.
    
The DoT statement comes in the wake of the apex auditor Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) raising issues, saying many licences were given without checking the qualification and credibility of the applicants.
    
According to reports, CAG in its draft report found that there were serious flaws and irregularities in the process of 2G spectrum allocation.
    
Telecom Minister A Raja is facing allegations that awarding of 2G licences in 2008 at Rs 1,658 crore for pan-India operations resulted in huge losses to the exchequer.
    
Even CBI has filed a case against unknown officials of the DoT and some private persons to investigate the irregularities in the 2G licences allocation. The agency has submitted in the Supreme Court last week that it was not in a position to confirm or deny any wrong doing at this stage as the investigations were still on.
    
It, however, had asserted that the CBI was conducting the investigations in a fair and impartial manner.
    
The matter is currently being looked into by various agencies and has also been raised from time to time in various courts and the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed before the Supreme Court is pending consideration for admission, DoT statement said.