Sachin Pilot confirms CAG findings on UASL

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for IT and Communication, today confirmed the irregularity pointed out by Comptroller and Auditors general report regarding the issuance of unified access service license to companies in 2008.

In his written reply to Lok Sabha, Pilot mentioned that 85 licenses out of the 122 new licenses issued to 13 companies in 2008 were granted to those companies which did not satisfy the eligibility conditions prescribed by the DoT.

“All 85 licenses were given to companies which did not have the stipulated paid-up capital at the time of application. Further, 45 out of these 85 licenses were issued to companies who failed to satisfy conditions of main object clause in their Memorandum of Association on the date of application. The CAG Report concluded that 85 licenses were issued to the companies which suppressed facts, disclosed incomplete information and submitted fictitious documents to the DoT and thus used fraudulent means for getting UAS licenses and thereby access to spectrum,” stated Pilot.

Like his senior minister Kapil Sibal, Pilot in his written reply did not use any terms expressing doubt over the irregularity.

Sibal during his interaction with media in the end of November prefixed words 'may' or 'might' before explaining DoT’s stand on irregularity found in issuing license to companies in 2008 under then union Telecom Minister A Raja.

However, Pilot's statement indicated that DoT is yet to issue notices to errant telecom companies.

“It is proposed to issue notices to ineligible companies under the terms and conditions of extant guidelines and licence conditions,” read the written reply of Pilot.

With respect to a question on the actual number of mobile subscribers, Pilot said a decision has been taken by the Department of Telecommunications that an exercise should be done on pilot basis in a representative area to know the actual number of active users as against number of active Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) in that area, subsequently information be collected from all areas for the same month.