The switch-over will cause a loss to the country of gigantic proportions, in the vicinity of Rs 50,000 crore, Yechury remarked while giving figures for the amounts the government will forego in the remaining period of the original license. These foregone amounts are estimated to be Rs 25,000 crore in case of the basic services, Rs 15,000 crore for the non-metro cellular services and Rs 8,000 crore for cellular services in metro cities. Thus, while the government is thinking in terms of levying a tax on the people to make up for the expenditure incurred on its operations in Kargil, on the other hand it is bent on allowing the private telecom operators not to pay large amounts that they legitimately owe to the country. Moreover, the license fees that these operators owe and which they are not willing to pay are what they had themselves quoted in an open bidding. Why the government is in such an undue hurry to give a "huge bonanza" to the private telephone operators, Yechury asked.

Moreover, if we at all accept that the telecom sector needs a bail-out, the CPI(M) leader said it is those providing services in non-metro cities that need it most, as their condition is not as good as of the metro cellular operators. But the bail-out package offered by the government in fact favours the latter who in fact "don't need it." Some of these companies have made big fortunes in the meantime, e g Essar which made Rs 3,500 crore by selling its 49 per cent shares in the stock market.

In regard to the switch-over from the license fee regime to a revenue sharing arrangement, Yechury said it was to effect this very change that Shri Jagmohan was shifted from the communications ministry, as he was opposed to this change, and the ministry was brought directly under the prime minister. In fact, "the prime minister's office (PMO) has been working overtime" to effect this change for which the opinion of the advocate general (AG), Soli Sorabji, was also sought. There is nothing objectionable if a government seeks the AG's legal opinion on an issue affecting public interest. However, the opinion given by the AG on this issue in May this year was totally different from that he had given in January. But why the AG changed his opinion and endorsed the transition, remains unexplained. Equally unexplained is the fact that the AG's opinion was kept a closely guarded secret while it should have been public knowledge.

In this context, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member also questioned the constitutional propriety of the government's decision regarding telecom, as regarding some other issues like disinvestment. It is not simply that the national telecom policy 1999 was never placed in parliament, and that it has been announced by a government that has lost the confidence of the Lok Sabha. It has grave financial implications as well. The last budget had proposed that the exchequer would get Rs 1,900 crore from the telecom operators but now the government has given up Rs 1,443.58 crore by reducing the license fee receipts via its switch-over package. This means a revision in the budget estimates passed by the Lok Sabha -- something which a caretaker government is not at all entitled to do, particularly because in normal circumstances it would have amounted to moving supplementary demands.

On the other hand, the government has bypassed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) by announcing an interim 15 per cent of gross revenue as the share of the telecom operators for the current year. This prejudices the TRAI's decision on the issue, Yechury said. The TRAI has already moved the court about this pre-emptive announcement by the government.

Yechury further said the Vajpayee government has virtually eliminated competition by putting a two year moratorium on the entry of the department of telecommunications (DoT) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) into the telecom services.

It is obvious that big kickbacks are involved here; either they have been paid or are in the pipeline. This will be a big issue before the people in the coming elections. The CPI(M) will also petition to the president of India about it, Yechury informed. The party has already taken up this issue with the Election Commission regarding the validity of this policy decision.