2G Scam: Notice to 85 telecom companies

New Delhi: Union Communications & IT Minister Kapil Sibal said Monday that the government would send notices to telecom companies that have flouted norms during the allocation of 2G spectrum. the notice will be send next week the minister said.

“It is time we issued notices to those who have suppressed facts and enjoyed undue privileges,” the minister told reporters in a press conference here.

The case of each of the 119 companies which were indicted in the CAG report will studied in detail before sending the notice.The companies will be given 60 days to respond to the notices.

Reiterating the CAG report on the 2G spectrum, the minister said that the companies violated norms in respect of transparency and equity as well as on the companies’ slcking in commitment to the roll-out of the licence. Of the 119 companies 81 fall under both categories of ineligibility to get licences and 38 for not meeting roll-out obligations

The eligibility requirement must have been undermined by companies because no such system was in place when they applied for the allocation, he said. Many of the companies when they applied would have done a self-certification, but would have failed to confirm to the Memorandum of Association(MoA). Any change to MoA can be made under Section 18 and 19 of the Companies Act.

“This helped some companies to get ahead,” the minister said. This would have turned the first-cum-first-serve basis to the advantage of a few companies.

Notice will be sent on the basis of inadequate paid-up equity of the company which are not in accordance with the terms of the Letter of Intent. The paid-up equity for each company depends on the category under which it has applied licence for the 2G spectrum.

A liquidated-damage clause will be imposed on the companies who failed to roll-out the spectrum within 52 weeks.

“There are about 119 of such instances, going back as far as to 2006, much before the actual allocation actually happened in 2008.

“Time has come for a transparent system which is very essential for a stable telecom sector,” he added.
Courtesy : Zee News