Banking on its curative petition pending before Supreme Court, Russian conglomerate Sistema Joint-Stock Financial Corporation (JSFC) today expressed hope that cancelled telecom licences of its India joint venture will be reinstated.
"I hope our licence in India is reinstated...I hope the Supreme Court takes the right decision. We have filed curative petition. We hope that Supreme Court will list and consider it," Sistema JSFC Chairman Vladimir Evtushenkov told PTI after half- hour meeting with Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal.
Sistema has 56.68% stake in Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL) and 21 of its 22 licences have been cancelled by the Supreme Court on February 2. In all, the apex court had cancelled 122 licences of several companies in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.
Russian government, which holds 17.14% stake in the company, has also been expressing concern and pressing the Indian government to ensure protection of Sistema's investment.
Evtushenkov has also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention to reinstate telecom licences of SSTL with interpretation that the Supreme Court judgement is not applicable to it.
"We have very unique case and this unique case (is) in CDMA. There was no competition for a pan India licence," he said.
Earlier, the corporation had said that it will pull out from India business if telecom regulator Trai's proposals are approved by government in their original form, specially pricing, as the recommendations did not support viable business case.
Sistema has demanded that maximum base price for airwaves in auction should be kept at Rs 1,658 crore instead of over Rs 36,000 crore as earlier suggested by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Evtushenkov said he is not pleased with the current proposal of the regulator and expects that the government will take a decision that would suit its business case in India.
"We expect Government of India will take right decision to let us continue our work in India. Today we don't know concrete price and terms but at the same time...In future...We hope there will be useful business case for our working in India," he said.
Sistema Chairman, however, did not reveal on the proposal
"Today I don't have any definite proposal. It does not depend on me," Evtushenkov said.
