CAG's estimate on financial loss erroneous: Sibal

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday he disagrees with the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) estimate of potential losses from sale of 2G telecommunications licences.

But Sibal said he agreed with the auditor that there was "something wrong" in the manner the licences were allocated.

"We do believe that prima facie there was something wrong in the procedure adopted in the allocation of 2G spectrum," Sibal told a press conference, referring to the second-generation telecoms technology that was present in 2008.

"The figure of Rs.1.76 lakh crore is so utterly erroneous that I would have thought that a complicated and complex issue like this should not have led to the conclusion of this magnitude, which has embarrassed the government and the nation," he said.

"The loss is Zero, nil," he said, refuting the audit estimate point-by-point.

"The Comptroller and Auditor General has done injustice to itself, and the opposition is doing injustice to the aam aadmi," he said. "We believe that the exercise was fraught with errors. We object to that," he said.

"If there is proof of any wrongdoing or criminal offence, the law will take its course," the minister, who is a lawyer by profession, said adding: "We are not here to protect or defend anyone."

In the largest in a spate of recent scandals in India, a government audit said in November the award of cellular licences and radio airwaves in 2007-08 at rock-bottom prices deprived India of as much as Rs. 1.76 lakh crore, almost equivalent to the country's defence budget, and noted irregularities in the process, resulting in the resignation of Sibal's predecessor A. Raja.

Sibal said as per the 10th Five Year Plan document, that was drafted during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime between 1998 and 2004, the growth of telecom sector was more important than revenues from the award of spectrum.

"Today they say revenue is important," he said, adding the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, since it came to power in May 2004, has only been following the policy set by the previous regime.

While challenging the auditor Kapil Sibal also slammed the BJP of not allowing Parliament to function.

The main opposition has vowed to block the February budget session of parliament if the Congress-led coalition government does not set up a joint parliamentary committee to probe the case. The December parliamentary session was virtually washed out.

The telecoms row is only the largest of a raft of corruption cases that has embarrassed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government and which has diverted attention from policymaking.

(with inputs from IANS)