Congress has scored self-goal on telecom issue: Jaitley

Says, Telecom Department is processing these documents and will take action

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the Congress has scored a "self-goal" by calling under-reporting of Rs 46,000 crore revenue by six telecom firms an National Democratic Alliance (NDA) scam as the "impropriety" had taken place during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime.
 

"Shrillness, non-application of mind and a belligerent rhetoric seem to be the strategy of the Congress party," he wrote in a Facebook blog titled 'An Empty Rhetoric by the Congress Party'.

Giving out historical context of the alleged scam, he said under the established policy, mobile telecom service providers pay the government a licence fee and spectrum sharing charge based on the revenues they earn annually.

A Comptroller and auditor general (CAG) report of February 2016 has stated that the six telephone providers including Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communication during 2006-07 to 2009-10 under-reported their revenues by as much as Rs 46,000 crores, thereby depleting the share of the Government in license fee and spectrum user charges by about Rs 5,000 crore.

Jaitley said the CAG Report was received by the Telecom Department in February this year and its supporting documents were received in June 2016 and the same are now being scrutinised for further action.

As per Parliamentary procedure, the CAG report is now pending before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

"The pertinent question is how is this a scam of the NDA government? The under reporting by the telecom service providers relates to the period when UPA was in power. The UPA government, under its very nose, allowed this under reporting," he said.

Stating that CAG had only three weeks ago sent relevant documents to the Telecom Ministry, he said the Telecom Department, notwithstanding the fact that the issue is pending before the PAC, is processing these documents and will take action.

"What is act of omission and commission by the present Government? An impropriety took place during the UPA Government for which the present Government will take action," he said.