NDA cleared migration policy for telecom operators: JPC

New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) The Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had cleared the
controversial migration policy for telecom operators despite
strong reservations by the then Indian Telecom Minister
Jagmohan and the Finance Ministry, Joint Parliamentary
Committee (JPC) chief P C Chacko said Tuesday.
The dissent note by Jagmohan and the reservations
expressed by the Finance Ministry, then headed by Yashwant
Sinha, are part of the documents available with the JPC.
The JPC on the telecom policies between 1999 and 2009
Tuesday quizzed former Telecom Secretary Anil Kumar who held
the office between August 1998 and February 2000.
Chacko said when Kumar was confronted with the dissent
note of Jagmohan, he termed it as an observation in which the
then Telecom Minister had wanted licensees to clear dues and
come afresh.
When Chacko was asked whether it was an observation or a
dissent, he said as per records available with the Committee
it was a dissent note.
Kumar told the Committee that the Cabinet approved the
migration policy as it was good for the health of the telecom
industry and its implementation resulted in lower tarrif
rates.
Jagmohan was moved to the Urban Development Ministry in
the backdrop of his relentless opposition to the New Telecom
Policy (NTP). The NTP was passed by the Union Cabinet in 1999
with Vajpayee in charge of the Telecom portfolio.
Kumar launched a spirited defence of the NTP-1999 which
included the migration policy from one-time license fee to
revenue sharing model for telecom operators.
"Today, we are enjoying the fruits of that decision,"
Chacko quoted Kumar as saying.
The former Telecom Secretary also sought to dismiss
claims of losses due to the migration policy pointed out by
the Comptroller and Auditor General as "hypothetical".
The CAG report of 2000 had said the migration policy had
led to losses to the exchequer but had not quantified the
same. Recently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had
pegged the losses at Rs 43,000 crore.
Kumar said the fixed licence fee regime was stalling the
growth of the telecom sector. He said had the government
continued with the fixed licence fee regime, telecom operators
would have continued to default on payments.
Asked for the reasons to change the dates for submitting
the bank guarantee under the NTP-1999, Kumar told the JPC that
the DoT was trying to create a litigation free environment.
On being asked why a uniform approach was adopted when
the telecom operators in metros were making profit, Kumar said
while operators in metros had large subscriber base their
revenue generation was low.
Kumar also told the JPC that the migration policy was
necessary to make the NTP-1999 a success. "We would not have
had the desired benefits of the NTP-1999 without the migration
policy," he said.
Incidentally, Jaswant Singh, a member of the JPC, was
heading the Group on Telecom when the NTP-1999 was rolled out.
PTI NAB