Arun Shourie, former Minister of Telecommunications and IT has contested Kapil Sibal?s claim that the allocation of spectrum by the NDA led to huge losses to the exchequer and said Sibal will be destroying his own argument by persisting with such a position.
He did, however, support Sibal?s statement of intent for reforming the telecom sector and added that there have been violations of law in the past and that there should be unwavering pressure on the government to punish the guily.
Also, he supported the revenue sharing formula adopted by the NDA, saying the whole sector would have collapsed without this shift. He added that the revenue sharing agreement was adopted for prompting the rapid growth of the sector. Rejecting the charge that it was done for appeasing major players in the sector, Shourie said policies are not cast in stone and it should factor in ground realities. Shourie also put forward two suggestions to Sibal.
First, the government should replace the 30-types of licences with one universal licence. Also, operators should be allowed to provide any service, through any technology, in any circle, to any user. This, he believes, will make the government a neutral party.
