Maran denies 2G telecom spectrum charges

Union Minister for Textiles Dayanidhi Maran denied allegations of favouring Maxis Communications by issuing Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) to the company during his tenure as Minister of Communications and IT between 2004 and 2007.

In a press statement issued today, Maran said the news appearing in newspapers and TV channels alleging he was partial to a particular company in granting UASL licence, is untrue and malicious.

“I vouch that during my tenure as Minister of Communications and IT, I was totally impartial in taking decisions. I have not favoured any company over others. Neither any applicant company was allowed to jump the queue in grant of UASL licenses, nor there was any loss to the exchequer,” he said in the statement.

“Only companies fulfilling the required conditions were given LOIs in their own turn and even CAG has not mentioned any loss to the exchequer on account of issue of licenses during my tenure,” he added.

The UASL licenses were approved when the file was submitted by the DoT after thorough examination of all issues, including legal aspects and the company became fully eligible for the allotment. The practice followed then for grant of UASL licence to any applicant was that the applicant company had to satisfy all prescribed conditions in respect of networth, funding pattern, business plan and debt-equity ratio, among others. The applicant company should also not have a history of default in payment/violation of licence conditions in any service area.

Commenting on the allegations that the ministry had favoured Dishnet Wireless Ltd, an arm of telecom company Aircel, he said the issue of granting UASL licence to the company was taken even before he had became the telecom minister on May 27, 2004. “Queries relating to funding potential of the company, its networth and debt-equity ratio were raised by the Department of Telecommunications and the application was under examination even before I became minister,” said Maran.

The UASL licenses were approved when the file was submitted by the DoT after thorough examination of all issues, including legal aspects and the company became fully eligible for the allotment.

“No telecom company directly or indirectly had ever invested in any of the companies owned by my brother during my tenure as telecom minister. I was not even a minister, when Astro invested in Sun Direct in December 2007 as I had resigned on 13 May, 2001. Needless to say, I own no shares or any fiduciary interest in any of these companies,” he said.