New Delhi, Sept 21: The government's claim that minutes of the meeting between former Telecom Minister A Raja and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram on January 30, 2008 were not maintained has turned out to be totally misleading, The Pioneer reported today.
The newspaper claims to have in its possession documents which show that the minutes of the meeting were prepared and signed by none other than then Finance Secretary D Subbarao (presently RBI Governor).
The meeting, which took place 20 days after the controversial allotment of spectrum by Raja, reveals that Chidambaram said that there was no need to “revisit” the mode adopted by Raja for spectrum allotment.
“FM (Finance Minister) said that for now we are not seeking to revisit the current regimes for entry fee or revenue share,” said point No: 5 of the ‘hushed up' minutes of the meeting between Raja and Chidambaram.
This observation of Chidambaram clearly shows that he had overruled the then Finance Secretary who had issued directions to stay the allotment of telecom licences and spectrum at the entry fee of Rs 1,658 crore, a price fixed seven years ago. The Finance Secretary had directed the stay on the spectrum allocation on November 22, 2007.
Incidentally, on January 15, 2008 Chidambaram wrote to PM Manmohan Singh to treat Raja's dubious spectrum allotment as a “closed chapter”.
On several occasions and even in Parliament, the Prime Minister said that “there were initial differences between two Ministers” (Telecom and Finance) on the spectrum pricing, and “later they were on the same page.”
Singh even disclosed the dates of the meeting between Raja and Chidambaram, but Government managers, including Parliamentary Affairs Minister PK Bansal, said there were no minutes of the meeting. The Government also justified the non-preparation of the minutes, saying that it was not always possible for the Finance Minister to record what transpired with other Ministers.
The then Telecom Secretary, Siddharth Behura, currently in jail along with Raja, and Advisor (Wireless) PK Garg, who is a prosecution witness in the CBI case, were also present in the meeting. s per the minutes, following are the gist of the discussion — the FM suggested that keeping in view of lessons of experience, allotment of licences and allocation of spectrum must be based on solid legal grounds. t was agreed that the optimum number of operators per circle would be about seven.
It was noted that there is a mismatch in the demand and supply of spectrum across circles. Redressing this mismatch will be another policy imperative, said the details of the minutes of the meeting which took place after 20 days after the scam. he meeting also discussed the changing of merger and acquisition rules in the telecom sector. “We also need to check the current rules and regulations governing withdrawal of spectrum in the event of: a) not rolling over, b) merger and acquisition, and c) trading away spectrum,” said the last point of discussion between Raja and Chidambaram.
Incidentally, after three months of this meeting, on April 2008, Raja dubiously issued an order changing the merger and acquisition rules, diluting the existing lock in period condition of three years. This new order facilitated the windfall gain to Swan and Unitech, who offloaded their shares to multinational telecom companies Etisalat and Telenor. he minutes also disclose that Telecom Secretary would attend a meeting with Finance Ministry officials, scheduled for next day --- January 31, 2008.
The ‘hushed up' minutes between Raja and Chidambaram showed that the jailed former Telecom Minister had discussed the matter in details with his counter part in the Finance Ministry. According to the October 2003, Cabinet decision, the Finance Ministry is the ultimate authority in the spectrum pricing. But when controversies raged, Chidambaram always claimed that he argued for auction. The minutes exposes his claim.
On deposing before the Public Accounts Committee, the then Finance Secretary Subbarao said that he had informed Chidambaram, before issuing directive to stay the spectrum allocation. The minutes of the meeting between Raja and Chidambaram shows that Finance Secretary's objections were overruled by Chidambaram. Perhaps that is why the Government always claimed no minutes was prepared at all.
