Did Congress just scoop Rs 45000 cr telecom scam out of Modi government?

Congress on Thursday alleged a staggering Rs 45,000-crore telecom scam and that Modi government was "surreptiously taking steps" to protect the interests of six leading telecom companies which owe the money to the public exchequer.

"Latest is a staggering 'Telecom Scam' of approximately Rs.45,000 crore plus that is being buried under the carpet by 'Modi Sarkar'", party's chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala alleged at a joint press conference with party spokespersons Shaktisinh Gohil and R P N Singh.

He alleged that the government is "surreptitiously taking steps to protect the interests of six leading telecom companies by helping them avoid the payment of charges rightfully owed to the government."

He claimed that this is a clear-cut case of loss to the public exchequer verified by the CAG "with the sole aim of helping friendly 'crony capitalists'." The telecom companies named by Surjewala are Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Idea, Tata and Aircel.

Replying to a question whether Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was this week shifted to Law and Justice Ministry from Telecom was involved, Surjewala claimed that what has happened in the matter cannot take place "without the direct or indirect concurrence" of the Prime Minister and it would be "improper" to blame any one minister.

The Congress leaders said that the CAG initiated an audit of the six telecom companies for four years from 2006-07 to 2009-10 at the instructions of the Congress-led UPA government. It specifically looked at underreporting of income and non-uniform method of accounting adopted by various telecom companies and consequent lack of obligation to pay outstanding licence fee and Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC).

In its report submitted this year, the CAG found an alleged understatement/underreporting of income by the six companies of Rs.46,045.75 crore in the four years.

"Resultantly, the CAG found that there was an amount of Rs.12,488.93 crore, which remains un-recovered by the government. This does not include penalty, if any, and other relevant taxes.", Surjewala said.

He said that although there has been considerable increase in business, consumer base and income, even if loss of exchequer is calculated on the same formula for the years 2010-11 to 2015-16, this figure would be Rs.45,000 crore plus.

"Instead of immediately acting on these shocking and startling revelations reflecting serious loss to public exchequer, Modi government has opted for an alternative re-evaluation of these figures by Telecom Ministry through Chartered Accountants who are empanelled with them", Surjewala said.