2G : Pranab note blames Raja, PC
Source: The Sangai Express / (Courtesy ibnlife)

New Delhi, September 21 2011: An official Finance Ministry document has cast doubts over the role of Home Minister P Chidambaram, who was then finance minister, in the January 2008 decision of former telecom minister A Raja to issue 2G spectrum licences.

On March 25, 2011, Dr PGS Rao, Deputy Director in the Finance Ministry, sent an office memorandum to Vini Mahajan, Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, regarding allocation and pricing of 2G spectrum.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the note after personally inspecting the 11-page document.

The Finance Ministry note sent many months after the 2G controversy broke and just a month after Raja was jailed in February, has been accessed by RTI activist Vivek Garg.

The note indicates involvement of Home Minister P Chidambaram, who was then finance minister, in the 2G spectrum allocation.

The note contains details of the role of Chidambaram and the Finance Ministry in the controversial allocation of 2G spectrum.

Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, former telecom secretary Sidharth A Behura and several corporate leaders are already in jail for their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam.

The note categorically stated that the Department of Telecom (DoT) would have been forced to cancel the 2G licences doled out by Raja, had the Ministry of Finance under Chidambaram, stuck to its original demand for auctioning the initial 'start-up spectrum' of 4.4 megahertz each allotted to the 2008 licensees.

Various official estimates have put the loss to the exchequer due to the 2G allocation on Jan 10, 2010 somewhere between Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 1,76, 000 crore.

However, present Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has gone on record to claim the exchequer suffered no loss on this account.

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