FICCI Chief for open market-method in Spectrum evaluation

Bangalore, Sep 26 (UNI) FICCI President and Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrashekhar has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to adopt an 'open market method' to fix the value of spectrum to be allotted to private telecom operators.

In a recent letter to the Prime Minister, he said since spectrum was a public asset, it must be commercially compensated at market value, while being transferred to another entity or company, after ensuring that the exchequer was not losing out.

Referring to the Swan Telecom's rating of the Department of Telecom's (DoT) valuation of 3G Spectrum at two billion US Dollars as ''low pricing,'' Mr Chandrashekhar alleged that ''the transaction clearly established irrefutable evidence that the government's pricing for Spectrum of 4.4 MHz was lower than the actual market value, causing considerable loss to the state exchequer.'' He also pointed that the arbitrage between the value that the government was receiving for Spectrum and the actual market value was to the tune of around Rs 8,000 to 9,000 crore.

He stressed the need for a comprehensive public policy when it comes to commercial terms of monetisation of public assets like spectrum, minerals and natural resources so that the exchequer gets its due.

UNI MV SJ 1557