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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has disagreed with a few points of a recent draft audit report by the Director General of Audit (post and telecommunications), which said the government could have lost a few thousands of crores of rupees as revenue towards spectrum usage charges during the past five years.
The report in question was titled 'Inefficient allocation and inept management of 2G spectrum and resultant loss to the government and denial of quality services to mobile subscribers'. DoT has proposed that certain paragraphs be dropped. The report would be part of the overall one of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for the period ending March 31, 2013.
The report of the DG Audit (P&T), R B Sinha, had said DoT could have allocated available spectrum to the existing operators whose applications are pending for additional airwaves. As this was not done, negligible revenue came in from 50 licensees during these five years.
DoT has stated additional spectrum allotment through subscriber-based criteria was dispensed with and spectrum was made available only through a market-driven process, with that in the 1,800 MHz, 900 MHz and 800 MHz bands put up for auction. The government had also decided to levy a one-time charge for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz (2.5 MHz for CDMA operators) and necessary orders are already issued. Some service providers have already asked to surrender additional spectrum, DoT has said.
It has also questioned why the source of information on subscriber figures was not taken from its Wireless Planning and Co-ordination (WPC) wing. According to the audit report, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), in its report of April 2012, had stated that 581 MHz spectrum was available in the 1,800 MHz band for allocation for commercial telecom services. DoT managed to sell just 127.50 MHz through auctions in November 2012. By Trai estimates, the 453.50 MHz spectrum, still available for allocation to operators, could be valued at Rs 85,014 crore, according to the communication, the audit report has noted.
In response to the point that a large quantity of spectrum is idle, as mentioned in the audit report, DoT said it had conducted two auctions that got little response from the operators, even after slashing the reserve price in the second round. Meanwhile, the government has decided to seek fresh recommendations from Trai to determine the price of spectrum for the next round of auction. The government needs to auction the spectrum with it to comply with a Supreme Court order.
The DoT communication also noted the National Telecom Policy 2012 envisages delinking of spectrum in respect of all future licences and making spectrum available at a price determined through market-related processes.
