Former CAG Vinod Rai and his team had the last laugh on Thursday when the ten-day-long 2G Spectrum auction ended by fetching Rs 61,162-crore to the public exchequer. This whopping figure of the 2G auction is much above the three-year-old 3G auction rates.
The CAG report on 2G scam pegged the humongous loss of Rs 1.76 lakh-crore based on the 3G auction rates. The entire Congress party and Government had pounced on the CAG, alleging erroneous calculation. Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had gone to the extent of floating an infamous “Zero loss Theory”.
The Congress-dominated JPC had ridiculed CAG for adopting 3G figures in arriving at the loss factor. Vinod Rai was grilled by Congress MPs in the JPC five times. From the very beginning of the auction, there was a clear indication that the rates would cross the 3G rates arrived in mid-2010. Expressing satisfaction on the auction figures, CAG officials said the new auction figures had justified their report on the 2G scam.
“We are analyzing the new figures of each circle. The average pan-India price clearly shows that the 2G rates have gone above the 3G rates of mid-2010. In our report on 2G scam prepared on 2010 figures, we considered the 3G rates and this benchmark was considered to arrive at the figure of Rs.1.76 lakh crore as loss to the exchequer,” said a senior CAG official.
Reacting to the high rates, Sibal said, the auction was “extremely successful.” Airtel, Vodafone and new entrant Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio became the big winners, where the seven existing operators competed for ten days.
“I am very happy to report that the auction is over. The total revenue that will come to the Government is Rs 61,162.22 crore. To that extent this particular auction has been extremely successful,” Sibal told reporters in the evening.
Eight companies participated in the auction - Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio, Aircel, Tata Teleservices, Telewings (Uninor) and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications.
In the 3G auction, the tally reached around Rs.50,000-crore. PSU companies BSNl and MTNl were not part of the auction and were to pay the final rate of the auction for the 3G waves. Calculating the fee paid by the PSUs the total collection went up to Rs.67,000-crore.
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