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| Sibal |
India's state auditor thought in November the country's treasury may well maintain lost $39 billion for the reason that telecoms licences were certain barred cheaply, forcing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's alliance on to the backfoot and putting policymaking into virtual limbo.
But in selected of his strongest annotations yet, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal dismissed the state auditor's estimate of would-be losses as "utterly erroneous".
"We resolve believe with the aim of prima facie near was something abuse in the procedure adopted in the allocation of 2G spectrum," Sibal told a news seminar, referring to second-generation mobile telecoms knowledge.
Sibal thought the genuine loss of funds was nothing for the reason that the government had solitary followed document framed by the prior administration.
"We resolve believe with the aim of the (auditor's) problem was weighed down with very serious errors which has resulted in the kind of sensationalism which has permitted the opposition to allotment utter fabrication to the citizens of this terrain," Sibal thought.
Opposition parties strained the closure of parliamentary proceedings in December on the row and threatened to disrupt the February Budget session save the government collection up a hang out enquiry into the scandal.
The government has rejected the opposition calls, aphorism a separate enquiry was under way.
Sibal's annotations were seen as an attempt to regain the taking sides initiative from Opposition camp on an circulation with the aim of maxim Andimuthu Raja, earlier Telecom Minister, resign in November.
Sibal thought a earlier estimate and federal investigators were investigating if near were some irregularities in the 2G process.
Raja, who denies some bad behavior, has been questioned by the federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on his role in the selling of telecoms licences. He is a organ of the DMK crew from south India which is part of the the ruling alliance.
The Telecom Ministry has asked five companies, together with confined units of Telenor and Etisalat, to defend their licences contrary to the state auditor's charges they were not eligible in place of the 85 licences they traditional in 2008.