The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reiterated that it was impossible to quantify the loss to the exchequer on account of spectrum allocation between 2001 and 2008. The regulator added that it had asked experts to obtain estimates, but were unable to calculate it.
Prior to this, R.K. Arnold, secretary, TRAI had, in a written correspondence to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said, “The expert committee has stated that it is not possible to predict with certainty the precise values of spectrum that would have emerged in an auction. It has also stated that the risk of error in the estimates increases since the exercise is carried out retrospectively and with meagre data.”
The CBI, in its charge-sheet, had said that spectrum allocation had caused a loss of around Rs 300 billion to the exchequer.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India had pegged the loss at Rs 1.76 trillion, due to former Minister of Telecommunications and IT, A. Raja’s decision to allocate spectrum on a first-come-first-served basis instead of through an auction.
