We have to abide by SC diktats, says Sibal

With the Supreme Court having come down heavily on the government over the 2G auction, telecom minister Kapil Sibal yesterday said, "If the court asks (us) to provide explanation, we will provide that explanation."

The apex court has slammed the centre for its "casual approach" to the sale recent sale of spectrum and sought an explanation from the telecom ministry.

Sibal told CNBC-TV18 in an interview that the secretary in the Department of Telecommunications will file an affidavit before the court. He blamed the existing circumstances for the poor outcome of the 2G auction and said the government was handicapped over the issue of pricing.

He said the auctions should be designed according to present and future needs. The government garnered a modest Rs9,407.64 crore from 2G spectrum sale last week, much below the Rs40,000-crore (the target was later lowered to Rs30,000 crore) that it was hoping to raise from the 20-year leasing-out of radio waves (See: 2G auction ends with only Rs9,400 cr garnered).

The industry had complained that the reserve price of Rs14,000 crore (for 5 MHz) for a pan-India licence fixed by the government was too high and that was what kept the bidders away. However, Sibal believes that lowering of the reserve price would not have netted more money. He had earlier said the outcome of the spectrum auction was a result of "market dynamics at play".

Sibal also "completely rejected" ex-BPL Telecom chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar's views that "the minister and government did very little real work to revive the confidence of new foreign investors and operators in the sector after the scams and controversies of 2010''.