Congress: Centre shielding 6 firms

Alleging that Modi government is shielding six telecom companies, the Congress on Friday asked when the government will recover Rs 12,488 crore due from them. It also questioned Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s insistence on a “special audit” by empanelled chartered accountants over and above the CAG audit of actual loss of Rs 12,488 crore.

“Has it lost faith in CAG or is it a mere ploy to indefinitely defer the recovery or to not recover the amount at all ,” it asked.

But finance minister Arun Jaitley said the Congress has scored a “self-goal” by calling under-reporting of Rs 46,000 crore revenue by six telecom firms an NDA scam as the “impropriety” took place during the UPA regime.

Mr Jaitley said the CAG report was received by the telecom department in February this year and its supporting documents were received in June 2016 and the same are now being scrutinised for further action. “The pertinent question is how is this a scam of NDA government The under-reporting by the telecom service providers relates to the period when UPA was in power. The UPA government, under its very nose, allowed this under-reporting,” he said.

While raising the telecom scam on the second day, Congress hinted that it will not allow the issue to die down and would raise it in Parliament in the coming session.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Mr Prasad had said the CAG report was received only in June 2016, though it was tabled in Parliament on March 11. Neither the ministry nor the minister denied the fact that the telecom ministry was conducting a special audit through empanelled chartered accountants over and above the CAG audit.

“While agreeing that a sum of Rs 12,488.93 crore (in addition to penalty) is recoverable by public exchequer on account of an under-reporting of income of Rs 46,045.75 crore by six telecom companies Prasad tried to justify the bungling by stating there is no under-reporting of income for subsequent years — 2010-11 to 2015-16,” Mr Surjewala said in a press conference.

“Why is Ravi Shankar Prasad insistent upon the fact there is no under-reporting of income by six telecom companies for any subsequent year: 2010-11 to 2015-16. How can the minister get this enlightenment regarding no under-reporting of income by these companies without even an audit conducted by CAG Does it not show the Modi government is not interested in getting an audit conducted through CAG for the years 2010-11 to 2015-16 for recovery of dues of nearly '33,000 crore that may accrue to public exchequer Does it not amount to compromising the interest of public exchequer ” he asked.

The UPA government,he said, asked for special CAG audit of accounts of telecom companies for the four years — from 2006-07 to 2009-10. But these companies went to court. Audit of CAG has finally come on March 11,2016. “Why the BJP government and Ravi Shankar Prasad are creating some scenes by misrepresenting these facts,” he asked.

New Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said “Who was running the government between 2006-10, everyone know that... Scam is of their government. It is their sin, we will do the work of cleaning it. We will do every bit to recover every single penny.”