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December 09, 2010, 9:04 AM EST
By Anoop Agrawal and Ketaki Gokhale
Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Ratan Tata, chairman of India’s Tata Group, said the ongoing investigation into sale of wireless permits two years ago should be extended to 2001.
“I support the ongoing investigations and believe that the period of investigation be extended to 2001 for the nation to know the real beneficiaries of the ad hoc policy making and implementation,” Tata wrote in a letter, responding to a lawmaker. Tata Group’s external public relations agency released a copy of the letter today by e-mail.
India’s federal investigators are probing a multi-billion dollar sale of second-generation wireless permits in 2008, which the nation’s chief auditor said deprived the state exchequer 1.4 trillion rupees ($31 billion) as the prices were below-market rates. The probe has led to the resignation of the telecommunications minister and stalled parliamentary proceedings.
In January 2001, the government sought to allow operators with code division multiple access technology to use the airwaves for offering limited mobile phone services, deviating from the then existing policy, Tata wrote.
Tata, 72, issued the letter after lawmaker Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Dec. 6 wrote on his website that Tata Teleservices Ltd. benefited from “out-of-turn” spectrum allocation. Chandrasekhar responded in an e-mail today that Tata’s letter was “exceptionally week” on facts.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India said last month that the telecommunications ministry awarded so-called second-generation licenses to 13 ineligible companies two years ago. The ministry sold 157 licenses at such “unbelievably low” prices that the government may have lost 1.4 trillion rupees in potential revenue, according to the auditor.
Telenor ASA and Emirates Telecom Corp. were among operators that purchased stakes in Indian companies whose license applications should have been rejected in 2008 because they were unqualified, according to the auditor’s report.
Tata also filed a petition in the country’s top court on Nov. 29 seeking to amend a century-old law to stop phone conversations between him and the founder of the Group’s public relations company from being circulated. Tata Group owns India’s largest automaker and steel company.
--Editors: Vipin V. Nair, Anand Krishnamoorthy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anoop Agrawal in Mumbai at aagrawal8@bloomberg.net Ketaki Gokhale in Mumbai at kgokhale@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net
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Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Ratan Tata, chairman of India’s Tata Group, said the ongoing investigation into sale of wireless permits two years ago should be extended to 2001.
“I support the ongoing investigations and believe that the period of investigation be extended to 2001 for the nation to know the real beneficiaries of the ad hoc policy making and implementation,” Tata wrote in a letter, responding to a lawmaker. Tata Group’s external public relations agency released a copy of the letter today by e-mail.
India’s federal investigators are probing a multi-billion dollar sale of second-generation wireless permits in 2008, which the nation’s chief auditor said deprived the state exchequer 1.4 trillion rupees ($31 billion) as the prices were below-market rates. The probe has led to the resignation of the telecommunications minister and stalled parliamentary proceedings.
In January 2001, the government sought to allow operators with code division multiple access technology to use the airwaves for offering limited mobile phone services, deviating from the then existing policy, Tata wrote.
Tata, 72, issued the letter after lawmaker Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Dec. 6 wrote on his website that Tata Teleservices Ltd. benefited from “out-of-turn” spectrum allocation. Chandrasekhar responded in an e-mail today that Tata’s letter was “exceptionally week” on facts.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India said last month that the telecommunications ministry awarded so-called second-generation licenses to 13 ineligible companies two years ago. The ministry sold 157 licenses at such “unbelievably low” prices that the government may have lost 1.4 trillion rupees in potential revenue, according to the auditor.
Telenor ASA and Emirates Telecom Corp. were among operators that purchased stakes in Indian companies whose license applications should have been rejected in 2008 because they were unqualified, according to the auditor’s report.
Tata also filed a petition in the country’s top court on Nov. 29 seeking to amend a century-old law to stop phone conversations between him and the founder of the Group’s public relations company from being circulated. Tata Group owns India’s largest automaker and steel company.
--Editors: Vipin V. Nair, Anand Krishnamoorthy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anoop Agrawal in Mumbai at aagrawal8@bloomberg.net Ketaki Gokhale in Mumbai at kgokhale@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net
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