Congress telecom scam charge against NDA 'utterly bogus': Ravi Shankar Prasad

Refuting allegations made by the Congress party against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government of trying to hush up the Rs.45000 crore deficit in telecom revenue, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said the charges were "malafide' and 'utterly bogus'

"I condemn the entire charge of the Congress party, it is deplorable, it is malafide and utterly bogus," he said.

Prasad clarified that it was under the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government from 2006-10, that the audit was done by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in which they came up with the finding of under-reported revenues of worth Rs. 46000 crore.

"Under the Manmohan Singh government from 2006-10 the audit was done and CAG submitted this report on February 2016. The CAG under-reported Rs.46000 crore, this is not loss, it is under reporting," he said.

He stressed that the government will not defend anyone and will recover whatever legitimate dues allowed within process of law.

"Our government is not in the business of defending anyone, whatever is legitimate due shall be recovered in accord with the process of law along with interest are pending will recovered along with penalty," Prasad said.

On Thursday, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued a clarification on the shortfall of revenue pointed by out CAG report and said that it was 'vigorously' examining documents and would issue notices to six telecom service providers shortly.

DoT said that the CAG report on understatement of revenue by six service providers was received in February 2016, adding that the information contained in it pertains to years 2006-07 to 2009-2010, which was before the tenure of the current government.

According to reports, the CAG in a report tabled in Parliament said these six companies under-reported their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) by Rs.46,045.75 crore, leading to a loss of Rs.12,488.93 crore to the exchequer from 2006 to 2010.

The six telecom operators, earlier in a joint statement, had contested the CAG findings. They said that the definition of AGR for the purpose of calculating licence fee is under litigation in various judicial forums, including TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal), high courts and the Supreme Court.

The Congress on Thursday at a press conference accused the Prime Minister Modi government of burying "under the carpet massive telecom scam of Rs.45000 crore.