No legal infirmity in auction guidelines, DoT responds to Vodafone’s allegations
The DoT is unperturbed by the allegations made by Vodafone and says there's legal infirmity in the auction guidelines.
Telecom Secretary R. Chandrashekhar has responded to the allegations made by telecom giant Vodafone that the government guidelines for the forthcoming spectrum auction were discriminatory and intended to benefit one set of players.
The Hindu quotes the senior DoT official as saying, “ The government does not believe there is any legal infirmity in the auction guidelines, especially since the decision to hold auctions has emanated from a court direction in the first place.”
According to Chandrashekhar, operators need only to pay ‘auction-determined’ price for their licences.“As for licence renewal, if operators do not accept the renewal terms, there will be no renewal of licence,” he added.
The DoT Secretary also ruled out the possibilities of any changes in the procedure.“The government is required to comply with the order of the Supreme Court and we have no reason to alter course at this stage,” he said.
Telecom Secretary’s comments come in the wake of Vodafone’s scathing letter to the department in which the operator demanded withdrawal of the spectrum guidelines for the next round of the spectrum bidding slated to begin March 2013.
Vodafone in its letter claims the guidelines are “illegal, discriminatory and benefiting one set of players”. “They are discriminatory and as they fix the reserve price of 900Mhz at three times the price of 800Mhz when TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) recommended that both these bands be treated at par and in fact treat 800Mhz as even cheaper than 1,800Mhz, thus selectively benefiting one set of players,” it said in the letter.
The ongoing tussle between Vodafone and DoT could jeopardise the forthcoming auction and could see the operator escalating the matter to the court.
“Unless resolved, the situation could lead to litigation, a development that both sides can ill afford. At stake is Rs. 30,000 crore of potential auction revenue. This negative sentiment casts a shadow on the efforts of both Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Mr. Sibal, who have been working to seek fresh domestic and international investments,” says The Hindu report.
Source: The Hindu